A New Generation
by Ice Queeny
Summary: In a time after Apocalypse, where the world is being rebuilt, mutants are forced to fight the battle against both humans and mutants. The lines between good and evil become blurred at times while struggle is always constant. However, the lines blur when t
1. Introduction

**Author's Penname:** IceQueeny

**Story Genre:** X-Men

**Story Title:** A New Age. A New Team.

**Author's Notes:** 1) I don't own X-Men ((wonderful Marvel Comics does)) and some of the character in the story are owned my reviewers, so please don't take them without talking to me first.

2) Also anything that is put in italics, or looks like _this_, means it's a thought of a character's. Like you're hearing the character's thoughts.

3) This is a **VERY** important chapter that everyone needs to pay close attention to. This chapter describes the eras/ages and everyone will need to know and understand those eras/ages names and what they are to understand the storyline.

4) Also, this is **no longer** an application story. I received an e-mail from telling me that my story had been removed because it was an interactive story, and so I'm hoping that changing it from an interactive story to a regular story that I can continue to post it. We'll see…

**A New Age.**** A New Team.**

Introduction

In a time where the Age of Apocalypse was over and Apocalypse was defeated, people had hope. The people of the world had named this age of hope and prosperity, The Renaissance Age. In The Renaissance Age, the majority of mutants and humans had found a common ground and they had begun to live among one another, in peace. The world was being rebuilt and there were no longer any lines of separation…So everyone thought.

In The Renaissance Age, it seemed that in a blink of an eye, hell itself had opened its fiery gates upon our world, slowly. The Renaissance Age was renamed The Hell Era because it was as though yesterday the Earth looked like it does for us today, but in a split second something changed. The Earth as we know it today seemed to be cast into the depths of hell. Some great cities crumbled into nothingness while some great cities managed to survive and continue life, but in a much different light then before. In the cities that managed to survive, the people found ways to continue on with their lives, but everyone was always very cautious just in case.

Our time now is a legend told to children at night before they go to bed in this period. This age we live in now was referred to as The Golden Age. The Golden Age seemed to die in an instant along with the hope of billions because one man rose up with a secret army and raged a war against all humans and mutants that associated with humans.

The X-Men were destroyed along with Xavier and his dream. The once magnificent dream and team was now a legend of the time. When all mutants began to fear that there would be no hope of ever achieving Xavier's dream of peace something happened. Long ago Xavier built a machine with mass amounts of power that even the government couldn't understand the technology behind it. This machine could comb over the whole world and space to find mutants. The machine could pinpoint a mutant's exact location. This machines name was Cerebro.

Cerebro became a legend along with Xavier and his X-Men, while the Mansion was believed to be a legend that was most likely reduced to rubble. The legends were wrong. Xavier and his X-Men were indeed destroyed but the legend of Cerebro and the Mansion being gone was wrong. During all the horrible battles, Cerebro had managed to keep the symbol of Xavier's dream standing: the Mansion. The Mansion in The Hell Era looked as is nothing had happened to it; as if someone took the Mansion from The Renaissance Age, or even The Golden Age, and placed it in The Hell Era. The gardens were perfect, the water wasn't stained red from blood, the paint looked fresh, and the windows were still in tact. However, for some reason no one could find the Mansion anymore.

Cerebro functioned on a higher program and level then it did before. It could detect mutants like it could before but now it could contact them. Cerebro's programming now was closer to that of a human's personality, though the voice was still robotic; the personality was that of a human. It recruited new mutants to train to fight for deceased Xavier's dream, though he was dead. Over time, Cerebro had recruited a fair amount of mutants for the school and was teaching them education, training them, and taking care of them as a mother would. It ran the whole Mansion and it was the new Xavier to the new X-Men team, which was called X².

The X-Men became constantly in battle to maintain Earth's very existence all because of a war that began long ago, during The Golden Age where mutants were still feared and unknown. Over time it subsided… but not for long. The war began to rage more then it ever had before; setting mutants again mutants, and humans against all mutants with the help of a new type of Sentinels. The X-Men, Acolytes, the Brotherhood, Magneto's team, all mutants seemed to be destroyed. X² was formed a few years afterwards, to replace the deceased X-Men and Chaos was formed to replace the Brotherhood, the Acolytes, and Magneto's team.

Many died, the demand for mutants was high on both sides and a deadly virus was in the hands of lone, disturbed human assassin bent on revenge.

That time is now…


	2. Dark Angel Defeated By A Different Angel

**A New Age. A New Team**

Chapter 1: Dark Angel Defeated by a Different Angel

The glorious buildings of Toronto, Canada once stood proud but now many of them had been reduced to rubble. While most of the buildings still stood and there was still grass in the local park, there still was pieces of buildings lying on the sidewalk and patches of grass burnt. The city looked high tech, but at the same time, it looked like it had been through a war. The air of the city reeked of sulfur and death.

The people of the city didn't go outside of their houses much, and when they did they hurried along the street, avoiding talking to anyone, and they seemed to fear every living thing around them. In this high tech war zone, there was fear everywhere. Anyone who walked into the city could smell the fear all around the streets. Though the highly advanced machines that stood as tall as twenty feet, called Sentinels, guarded the people of the city, they still feared what they had been fighting for years…Mutants.

Right after the Age of Apocalypse humans and mutants had found a way to coincide with one another, in peace, but one man and his army of mutants rose up and declared war on all humans and all mutants that associated with humans. The humans had gone straight to work on building some weapon that would save them, or protect them. They used the old blueprints of the olden day, also known as the Golden Age, Sentinels and created a new type of Sentinel that detected a mutant anywhere in the city, detected their powers, and then destroyed them.

The Sentinels of the Golden Age were maroon and purple with a peach face, but the new age Sentinels were all black with silver faces. They were nicknamed "Dark Angels" or "Death Angels" by the civilians of cities guarded by them. While they stood alone on the feared streets ready to destroy any mutant, they still made the people fear them too. For once during the Golden Age, a mutant by the name of Magneto used his power of magnetism to rewire the Sentinels to seek and destroy humans. While humans feared the Sentinels, they had no other choice but to have them, to take the chance of history repeating itself, because the Sentinels were all the citizens had to protect them. Tank, guns, and bombs couldn't stop the mutants. The closest way to stop the mutants was with Sentinels.

They were positioned in various parts of the city and they looked as though they were sleeping on the job, but the truth was they were constantly scanning the city and every person to find a certain gene in their DNA: the homo superior gene. When a Sentinel sensed the gene, their eyes would flash on and glow a brilliant red, almost signify the hatred of mutants or the blood that the Sentinels were programmed to spill. Their eyes were their signal to the people to hide because a mutant was near and soon the Sentinel would be attacking that mutant. Many humans hid in their homes, but they all knew that weren't safe even there, because the Sentinels would stop at nothing to carry out their program.

On Alvin Avenue, the eyes of a Sentinel turned on and began to glow a brilliant red. The people around the area scrambled to get into their houses, as the Sentinel began to walk down the avenue towards the corner of Glen Elm Avenue and Alvin Avenue, making the ground shakes as it walked. There was a mutant near.

A young girl, who was wearing jeans and an over-sized t-shirt and looked no older then fifteen, ducked into an alley huffing and puffing. Her skin was a very light caramel and her dark brown eyes flickered around the alley, trying to find a way to escape…There was nowhere to run.

**BOOM! BOOM!**

The ground shook, as the Sentinel grew closer to the girl. She pressed up against the alley wall and looked around.

"Come on. Think D. Think!" The girl, presumably named D, told herself and then she gasped as an idea came to her.

She slowly crept to the edge of the alley and looked down the street. There was a cemetery to one side and an empty street, where the Sentinel was coming from, to the other. _Alright. One shot. I can do this._ She told herself.

She closed her eyes and thought of bombs. Her eyes flashed open and she flung her hand out and out of thin air bombs flew out of her hand, landing on the street. She bent her knees slightly and pushed off the ground. She took flight into the air and flew as fast as she could, which wasn't too fast, towards the cemetery.

As she flew over the gates of the cemetery, she heard a loud explosion. _My bombs._ She thought in relief. She sighed but as soon as the air had escaped her lips for the sigh, she felt something wrap around her waist and squeeze tightly. She let out a gasp in pain as the pressure around her became tighter and tighter.

"Homo Superior captured." an electronic voice said from behind the girl.

D felt her breath slowly slipping away from her as she tried to hold onto it was all her might. She was forced to turn around and face the Sentinel that had been chasing her.

_My... Bombs... Didn't… Work... _She thought as she felt the grip of the Sentinel grow tighter around her small body. "Ahhhh!" She let out a loud cry.

"HEY CHICO!" A female voice yelled.

D felt her head going light and she managed to look behind her to see a woman standing in front of the Sentinel on the ground. The woman standing before the Sentinel was wearing dark blue jeans and a crimson red tank top. She had shoulder-length brown hair and she looked like she was Latino.

"Homo Superior detected." The Sentinel said as it stepped closer to the woman.

"Sure ya wanna play like that?" The woman said in a thick New Yorker accent. The Sentinel stepped closer to the woman, who wasn't budging. "I see ya do wanna do this the hard way." She smirked and then held out her hands.

D slowly blinked her eyes as the woman held out her hands and when she opened them she found herself lying on the ground, but it wasn't the ground. All around her was blackness, and underneath her was blackness, yet D wasn't falling.

"Welcome to ya personal hell," D heard a voice say. It sounded like the woman's voice.

D slowly sat up and looked behind her to see the Sentinel tied up and the woman standing in front of it. The woman a small black gecko on her tailbone, _What's with the lizard?_ D thought as she looked at the tattoo.

She watched as the woman floated into the air and waved her hands around as if conducting a symphony, but instead large floating tools began to disassemble the Sentinel. D watched in shock as the Sentinel slowly fell apart and the glowing red eyes disappeared.

D gasped,_ S-She… beat the Sentinel_, she thought as she just stared at the strange new, obvious, mutant.

Her brown eyes flickered all around this strange place as the blackness faded and they were back in the cemetery, and the Sentinel was still standing. The woman walked over to D and offered her a hand. "Need a hand?" The woman half smiled, half smirked.

D took the woman's hand and slowly stood up. "Um… Thanks, but the Sentinel…"

"Oh that estúpido robot?" She smirked and pulled D up. "Don't worry bout it." Right as the woman said 'it' the Sentinel fell to the ground in pieces.

D watched the Sentinel fall to the ground and then looked back at the woman, as she slowly backed away. "What… Who… Who are you?" She stuttered. Though D was a mutant herself, she had only just found out about her mutation that day, while this woman destroyed a Sentinel by herself.

The woman stayed put. "Ya afraid of me?"

D stood up straight. _I could take her…easily…._ D thought, _I think._ "No. Just not sure I can trust you."

"The name's Saria Williams. But ya can call me Switch… and I just saved ya life so I think ya can trust me." She smirked in a challenging way, as if asking D to retort back.

"My name's Dawn Kent. But you can just call me D, if you want." Dawn stepped towards Saria, knowing now it was all right.

"Well what's ya codename?"

"You mean like my nickname?"

Saria shook her head with a small laugh. "No. You're a mutant. All mutants have codenames… It's the name the mutant goes by when they're fightin', instead of their real name."

Dawn opened her mouth and looked down, "I don't have one." She said a little disappointed she didn't have one, but she looked back up at Saria.

"Ya don't have one? How can ya be a mutant and not have a codename?" Saria chuckled while she looked at Dawn as if she was short a few screws.

"I just found out I'm a mutant today." Dawn said with a little anger in her voice. She was getting sick of this older girl and her questions… even if she did save her life.

Saria shook her head and pulled out a small book and a pencil. "How'd ya do that?"

Dawn watched as Saria began sketching in the book. "Well, I, um… The short version is I was hanging out with my friends, a guy was bothering us, I wished that a snake would attack him… and it happened." She half smiled and then sighed, "But then everyone knew I was a mutant and so I panicked. I tried to runaway but instead I flew… None of it seemed real. Then the Sentinel spotted me and chased after me…"

Saria smirked as she continued drawing and listening to Dawn's story. "Well let me be the first to tell ya the number one rule of being a mutant." Saria finished drawing and put the book back in her pocket. "Never panic. If ya panic ya either lose control of ya powers or ya won't be able to use them… 'member that kid."

"I'm not a kid."

"How old are ya?"

"Fifteen going on sixteen next week," Dawn said proudly.

"Like I said… You're a la nina." Saris rolled her eyes and turned to leave.

Though Dawn didn't know a whole lot of Spanish she knew 'nina' meant kid. "I AM NOT!" Dawn shouted and then glared at the back of Saria. _I'll show you... _Dawn closed her brown eyes and imagined herself holding the little book Saria had been drawing in. She opened her eyes and the book flew out of Saria's pocket and into her hands.

Saria whipped around. "Give it back right now!" She shouted as she stormed over to the younger girl.

"Admit I'm not a kid."

"Are ya serious?"

"Does it look like I'm joking?" Dawn said challengingly.

Saria let out a little laugh, "Ya don't want to mess with me, chica."

"Just admit it and I'll give you your book back."

"Ya wanna know what my powers are? I can bend reality to make you believe, feel, see, smell, or taste anythin' I wish… Now, are ya sure ya want to keep testin' me?" Saria paused for a second, "Give me my book."

Dawn smirked and started to look through the book casually. "What's so important about this book anyway?" Dawn flipped through the pages seeing drawings upon drawings of fights and adventures. It was as if this tiny book told a story.

Saria jumped for the book and grabbed it from Dawn. She caught herself before she feel to the ground and she stood up. She snapped the book shut and then looked down at the worn cover of it. She ran her hand over the cover, as she seemed entranced by it. "It's my **real** life." Saria said softly before tucking it back in her pocket and sharply turning to walk out of the cemetery.

Dawn watched Saria walk towards the entrance of the cemetery in confusion. _Her **real** life?_ Dawn shook her head and ran up to Saria's side. "You're real life? What do you mean?" She asked as she walked along side Saria.

Saria didn't slow down or look down at Dawn. "You're not goin' to leave me alone, are ya?"

Dawn looked up at Saria and smirked, "I have no one else to go to, so…no. I'm not."

Saria sighed and stopped. She looked down at Dawn, "This book," she pulled out her book, "is a collection of drawin's of everythin' I've gone through. My powers are to bend other people's reality, but at the same time it can bend my own, so a lot of the time I can't tell the difference between reality and my imagination goin' wild." She took a deep breath in and sighed, "So I use this book and draw everythin' I've ever done in it so I can 'member the truth."

Dawn looked down at the book in Saria's hands. "They're really good drawings." She said softly, not really knowing what else to say.

"Wouldn't know."

"How don't you know if they're good or not?" Dawn sounded shocked and then sighed in annoyance, "Are you one of the people who draw something and say it sucks but it's actually really great?" Dawn rolled her eyes.

Saria laughed and stuck the book back in her pocket. She began to walk out again, with Dawn following. "No. I just have never looked in the book."

They reached a dusty old jeep and Saria opened her door, got in, then leaned across to pull up the lock on Dawn's door. "You've never looked in it? Why?" Dawn asked as she got in the car. She really didn't understand why she was getting in a car with a stranger, but Saria had saved her life and was a fellow mutant, so she couldn't be all that bad…but Saria did seem a little weird, or a little different from everyone Dawn was used to.

Saria started up the jeep. "Because I'm afraid if I look in it I won't 'member what happened that day, and then I'll feel like I'm goin' insane…which I'd rather not feel." She smirked.

Dawn laughed. "So your accent…"

"New York."

"What are you doing in Toronto when you're from New York?"

Saria looked over at Dawn and smirked, "Vacation. New York is crawlin' with Sentinels and I heard Toronto was a good place." She laughed and put the jeep into drive, but did leave just yet.

Dawn laughed "I wanted to ask you… What's with the lizard on your back?"

Saria looked over at Dawn and then smirked softly, "It's been there so long I almost forgot bout it." She said as she touched her fingertips to her skin where the tattoo was. "I don't know why, I just was drawin' one day and I drew this gecko. I really liked the picture and I was goin' to get a tattoo anyway, but at first I didn't even think bout the gecko as my tattoo. The more I looked 'round in the shop the more I thought about the gecko." She let out a small laugh, "I mean geckos are like mutants. Some gecko can loose their tails and grow new ones, some change colors, some have poison… So when it came time for my tattoo I decided on the gecko."

Dawn shook her head and she chuckled as she buckled her seat belt, "So where are we going?"

Saria looked back at Dawn "Hold tight. We're goin' to Xavier's Mansion."

Dawn's mouth hung slightly open. She had heard about Xavier's Mansion in her books. It was thought to be a highly respected school but was revealed to be a school to teach mutants to use their powers. It also was the home base for a group of mutants, in this new age, which tried to protect humans, even though humans still feared them and wanted to destroy them.

"X-Xavier's Mansion?" Dawn stuttered. She had always wanted to see the school. _I wonder if it's still standing… Maybe we. I mean the humans attacked it. Or maybe the Sentinels did._ Just the name 'Xavier's Mansion' had sent Dawn's mind racing a mile a minute. _I wonder if they still teach new mutants to use their powers…_

"Yup." Saria smirked. "You'll go there to learn how to control and use ya powers." Saria smiled.

"They're still teaching?" Dawn asked a little surprised. _That question's answered._ "I mean haven't they been attacked yet?"

"Yup. Now no more talkin'. It's Sublime time." Saria laughed as she took her foot off the brake and pushed it down on the gas as she turned up the CD player so it was blaring 'Santeria' by Sublime.

The back tires of the jeep swung back and forth on the road, but it didn't seem to bother either girl. Saria was too busy singing along to the music, while Dawn was drumming the beat on the side of the car. In a matter of moments, the jeep was flying through the streets of Toronto towards the highway that would take them to the Xavier Mansion.


	3. Destruction Is A Friend Of Death

**Author's Note: **I just want to inform everyone that's reading this story that I'm going out of town on Monday (December 29th, 2003) and I won't be back until Sunday (January 4th, 2004). So go ahead review the story but I won't be able to e-mail anyone about questions they need answering to, or questions I have, or just to talk. I love all of you and enjoy Chapter 2…

**A New Age.**** A New Team**

Chapter 2: Destruction is the Friend of Death

A mysterious figure was wearing a long black robe with a large hood that covered the person's face. The person solemnly walked while holding a tall staff in thief right hand. As the person walked along, touching their staff to the ground with every step, there was no sound. Not even the sound of the staff could be heard as it touched the ground. The only sound around the mysterious figure, which could be heard, were heart-wrenching screams of horror.

The world around the figure was black and every shade of grey. The sky blazed a crimson red, like blood, with black clouds that seemed to fill the sky. The ground was a deep clack that looked like ash. There were trees in random places and they looked as though they were burnt but had managed to survive. The trees had no leaves and the branches stuck out in all directions. The land looked worse then The Hell Era. It was as if the figure was in another dimension or another realm.

There were people walking around as if they were zombies. They shuffled their feet as they walked and held their heads down. Occasionally, one of the people, which were walking around, would lift their head to let out a cream that told a story of the dead and of death. The people's faces were sad and terrified. Their eyes were bloodshot and their bodies were shades of grey and black, as if they had no souls to grant them color.

The mysterious person stopped. A little girl dressed in a small black dress with a white apron over the dress, stood before the person. The little girl's apron was the only color in this realm of death to be seen. Something about this little girl made her different from everyone else in this hellish place. Her head was held high and her left eye was a dark hazel while her right eye was a real light hazel, instead of being bloodshot like everyone else's. She had medium length black hair, which was held out of her eyes by a thick white headband, and three birthmarks in the shape of a triangle about an inch underneath her right eye.

"Linx, you came back." The little girl said with happiness in her voice.

The mysterious figure brought its hands to the brim of their hooded robe and pushed back their hood to reveal a girl. The girl, presumably Linx, had short flipped out hair that was completely black on the top and underneath it was mostly black with some tiny bright red highlights. Her eyes were just like the little girl's and she had the same three birthmarks underneath the same eye. Both of her ears were double pierced and her right cartilage had a small ear cuff in it.

"Of course I did Grim." Linx held out her right hand, which had a skull thumb ring on her thumb, to the little girl, whom was presumably Grim.

Grim gladly took her hand and the two began to walk around the strange dreadful world that crawled with the feel and smell of death. Among the screams of the zombie like people, there were whispers of the name "Scythe".

"Has the Dead Realm treated you well Grim?" Linx asked as she slightly swung her and Grim's hands along as they both walked side-by-side.

"Very well Linx." Grim looked up at Linx and smiled. "How's Hecate?"

"As well as she normally is. She's pretty much the same." She shrugged. "She still lives life as if it's a chore instead of a blessing."

Grim giggled, "Well that's Hecate for you. Tell her I say hi, alright?"

Linx nodded with a small, "Of course I will." Linx smiled and then her ears caught the name "Scythe" again. "What's with this talk of this "Scythe" character?"

Grim let out a small giggle. "That's you silly."

Linx stopped walking and looked down at Grim, "Me?"

"Yes. You." Grim pulled Linx along so that she began to walk again, "They nicknamed you that."

"But why?"

"Because they feel they have the right to call you Linx, like I do, just like in Limbo how they call you Mistress… So they nicknamed you Scythe." Grim said gingerly.

Linx nodded her head as she continued to walk along side of Grim for a few moments and then and looked down at Grim. "But why the name Scythe?"

Grim opened her mouth to answer Linx but a person from the Dead Realm grabbed onto Linx's free hand and dropped to their knees. "Please Scythe. Take me to Limbo. Please. I'm begging you… Oh please…" The grey and bloodshot man pleaded as he held onto Linx's hand.

Linx and Grim stopped walking and both stared at the man. Grim leaned forwards to get a better look at the man while Linx just stared down at him. "You cannot beg for your life back after it has been taken." Linx said bluntly before pulling her hand away from him.

Tears began to roll down the man's cheeks as he spoke to Linx, "But only you can bring the dead closer to life…"

"And only **I** get to choose when they get closer." Linx pulled Grim along.

As Linx and Grim walked along the man stayed behind and wept on the ground. "That's why they call you Scythe here. Because the Grim Reaper's Scythe can choose life and death for someone… Just like your powers let you do with letting you choose if the dead stay in the Dead Realm or if they get to move to Limbo."

Linx continued to walk with Grim as she glanced around at all the people who were walking around with their heads down, while they looked so grieve-stricken. Grim looked over her shoulder as she stared at the man and then looked up at Linx. "Linx?" She said softly as she stared at the crying man.

"Yes Grim?"

"Why couldn't you send him to Limbo?" Grim looked up at Linx, "I mean. Look at him…"

Linx stopped and turned around. She stared at the man who was still crying on the ashy ground. She bent down so she was crouching next to Grim and put her arm around Linx. "You see Grim… I can't send everyone to Limbo." She said softly. "People can't just beg for their lives back and expect them to be handed back to them. That's too easy. These people need to prove that they deserve their lives back, because I know most of these people deserve their lives back, but I need them to prove it to me."

Grim looked at the man and watched him wipe his bloodshot eyes, stand up, and began to walk around just like everyone else. "But one man can't change that much…"

Linx looked over at Grim, "One man can change everything." She whispered as she stood up and began to walk away again.

Grim walked along with Linx until they both came to a stop. "Linx?"

Linx stared out at a small area that had some people walking around. "Wait here…" Linx said absent-mindedly.

Linx untangled her fingers with Grim's and started to walk towards one of the people who were walking around. It was a little boy. She walked in front of him and crouched down.

"You're Scythe, aren't ya?" The little boy asked with fear in his voice.

"Yes." Linx nodded once, slowly. "What's your name?"

"Alex Williams."

"How did you die Alex?" Linx asked calmly.

"I-I don't 'member." Alex said in disappointment in himself for not remembering how he died.

"Try to remember."

Alex closed his eyes, and Linx could tell that his eyes were moving though his eyes were closed. He opened his eyes a few moments later and looked at Linx. "A mutant… He murdered me."

Linx looked down at the ash ground and then back up at Alex, "Do you know why this mutant murdered you?"

"To get to my sister." Alex's eyes filled with tears, but it didn't seem to effect Linx.

Linx placed her finger underneath Alex's chin and lifted his head up to face her. "Remember that not all mutants are bad."

Alex slowly nodded his head as he tried not to cry. "I know."

Linx leaned closer to Alex and her lips came close to the little boy's ear. "Don't let your heart be consumed by revenge and anger; otherwise your soul will be consumed by fear." She turned her head to the side and softly kissed Alex's cheek and then Linx stood up.

She stared down at Alex and watched as slowly Alex turned into what looked like dust. There was no wind in the Dead Realm but a mysterious gust of wind blew threw and picked up the dust of Alex. The wind carried Alex up into the sky where he disappeared.

Linx watched as Alex turned to dust and was carried away before she turned and walked back over to Grim. "Alright." She said calmly.

"Why him and not the man?"

"Because he had shown you that he deserved life, and since you are me, he also showed me that he deserved life." Linx glanced up at the sky.

"Oh…" Grim looked up at the sky also.

Linx looked down at Grim and then crouched down in front of her. "Alright Grim."

Grim looked at Linx and frowned. "Already?"

Linx let out a small laugh. "I have to go back."

"Will you be back?"

"You know I always will be."

Grim wrapped her small arms around Linx's neck, "Alright."

Linx smiled and returned the hug to Grim, "I'll see you soon Grim."

Grim let go out Linx and stepped back from her. She watched as Linx looked up into the sky and began to glow a bright red. Soon Linx transformed into a glowing red ball and then shot off into the Dead Realm's sky…

Linx's dark hazel and hazel eyes slowly fluttered open to a bright white light.

"Grim call?" A calm voice asked.

Linx slowly sat up and her dark hazel and hazel eyes came into focus. It was nighttime outside and the room she was in was dark except for one bright lamp that was on by a large plush red chair. In the chair sat a girl with platinum blonde hair that was held out of her face by a blood red clip. The girl in the chair was the only person in the whole room, so Linx knew she had asked about Grim, but it was strange because the girl in the chair hadn't looked up at Linx; she just stared at the book in her lap.

"When'd you come in here, Hecate?" Linx smirked as she stretched out her arms above her head.

"I came in about twenty minutes ago but you had already drifted." The girl, named Hecate, in the chair finally looked up at her best friend Linx. Hecate's deep, dark blue eyes looked black in the shadows of her face from the dark room and bright light.

Linx chuckled, "Yeah sorry about that. Grim called."

Hecate closed her book and set it on the small tap next to the chair. "How's Grim?"

Linx put the front parts of her hair behind her ears as she talked, "She's good, and she says hi, by the way."

Hecate smiled, "Well tell her I say hello… Why'd she call this time?" Hecate paused, "Is she alright?" Though the questions was a question of concern, Hecate's voice wasn't cold and emotionless but with the tone of voice she used someone wouldn't think she'd ask a question like that. A question of concern.

Linx laughed, "Because she was afraid I wasn't coming back."

"But you always come back."

"I know. That's what I told her, but she still had doubts." Linx chuckled as she lowered her head and shook it slowly, back and forth.

"She's a silly one." Hecate said with a smile laugh as she picked back up her book and began reading it again.

A few minutes passed, while Hecate read her book, Linx stared out the window into the darkness.

Finally, someone broke the silence.

"Hey Hecate?" Linx whispered as she zoned out on the darkness outside the window across from her.

"Yeah?" She asked, not looking up from her book.

"You ever find it weird that even though our world now is a high-tech war zone the Mansion itself seems to be a world of it's own?" She sighed, "I mean we have a beautiful garden that's untouched by any bombs, a fountain whose water doesn't run red. We're a house full of mutants and yet the Mansion grounds are an untouched utopia."

Hecate stopped reading, but didn't look up. "I find it beyond weird. It's unexplainable, but at the same time it's explained." She sighed and set her book on the table again then looked over at Linx.

"I know that Cerebro makes sure that the Mansion is alright and can't be harmed, but it's strange. The Mansion's like a fantasy world someone goes to in their mind to escape the horrors of the real world." Linx sighed. "I come back from the Dead Realm and I sometimes have to stop and wonder if this is all real."

Hecate stood up and walked over to Linx, offering her a hand to help her to her feet. "With all the mutants out there today with new powers we've never seen before it's hard to tell what's real and what's not." Linx took Hecate's hand and she pulled her to her feet. "Besides with the world today, itself, it's hard to tell what's real because it all seems so unreal."

Linx stood up next to Hecate, "Yeah…"

Hecate started to head out of the Living Room, which both of them were in. "I just wish it was the Renaissance Era again." She whispered as she left.

Linx looked down at the ground and got a flash of all the people dying during the Renaissance Era and the screams of horror. She blinked her eyes and whispered, "We all do." She took a deep breath in and walked out of the Living Room.


	4. Scottish Shock And The Coldhearted Sonic

**Author's**** Notes:** I'm so, unbelievably sorry that I haven't posted in a long time. I went out of town, and then got in trouble so I haven't had a lot of time to write. I also got bad writer's block. Well here's chapter 3. It's shorter then the other two and I hope it's up to the standards of the other two.

Also. People need to reread the Introduction, again, because I've changed some things, once again. I swear I won't ever change anything more on the Introduction it's just I wasn't sure how I was going to set this story and I figured it out while out of town. So I added everything everyone needs to know to know which way this story is going. Enjoy…

**A New Age.**** A New Team**

Chapter 3: Scottish Shock and the Coldhearted Sonic

In a lightly lit living room a young African American boy, who looked as if he was no more then eighteen, was asleep on a black leather couch. He had very short, dark brown hair and he was wearing nothing but some black sweat pants. He had his hands folded on top of his stomach as he silently slept. Something about the boy seemed as if he really wasn't sleeping but waiting to strike at the first sign of life in the eerie living room.

The living room this boy was in was different from the living room that Linx and Hecate were in. The walls were a dark beige while the floors were a dark cherry-red wood. The majority of the furniture was either black leather or black wood. The feel of the room was dark and some sort of an eerie that made someone get Goosebumps.

"Still sleeping, eh, Rashad?" A thick Scottish voice asked.

The person who asked walked into the eerie living room and revealed to be another boy who looked like he was a year younger then the boy on the couch, presumably Rashad. The Scottish boy had dark brown hair that was neatly kept and it seemed when the light hit his hair just right it looked slightly auburn. He was wearing baggy black shorts with a black wifebeater.

Without even opening his eyes, Rashad responded. "I'm not sleeping. I'm resting my eyes."

"Resting your eyes, eh?" The Scottish boy said as if he didn't believe Rashad.

Rashad opened his deep brown eyes and looked over at the other boy. "Yes, Lucas. Resting my eyes." Rashad said sharply to Lucas, who was the Scottish boy.

Lucas put his hands up in defense, "Calm down there." He said with a small chuckled, in his voice.

A few minutes passed by and neither boy said anything until Lucas spoke up.

"Rashad?"

"Hmm?"

"What are we doing today?" Lucas paused, "Training whys that is…" He asked while looking at Rashad, who was still on the couch across the room.

Rashad sighed and sat up, "Well the girls need to learn to be able to fight using hand-to-hand combat because they can't rely on their powers all the time."

Lucas nodded hid head in agreement. "So were going to be doing this for how long then?"

"As long as I say." Rashad said coldly.

"And how long will **that** be?"

Though the question was usually said to be funny or sarcastic, Lucas was serious.

Normally Rashad would have shot a sonic blast, out of his hands, at the person for being so rude, but he didn't because that was one of the many qualities of Lucas Connelly.

"One day that Scottish mouth of yours is going to get you in serious trouble, you know that Scottie?"

Lucas (Also known as Scottie) laughed, "Trust me… It already has," he smirked, "but then again, as easy as it gets me into trouble…"

"…It gets you out of it." Rashad finished Lucas sentence and then rolled his eyes at the Scottish boy.

Lucas grinned, "Exactly."

"Don't grin like that." Rashad said quickly, though he hadn't even looked over at Lucas when he had been grinning.

"Why?"

"You look like you're on something illegal."

"Our whole team is illegal." Lucas reminded Rashad.

"Just don't do it." Rashad closed his eyes, put his hands behind his head and took a deep breath in through his nostrils, making them slightly flare.

Lucas laughed, "Fair enough."

The two of them both sat in the dark, eerie living room in silence.

_I have to go see Sammy later._ Lucas thought. "So you decided on how long this training thing is going to be yet?"

"No. I haven't." Rashad slightly annoyed.

"O…k, well…"

"I'll let you know when I do."

"Promise?" Lucas smiled mischievously.

Rashad opened one eye and looked over at Lucas. "Yes Lucas. I promise, now shut the hell up." He said calmly but sternly to get his point across.

Lucas looked down, "Fine, cranky pants."

Rashad closed his eye, "Why are you so set on getting out of here?" He paused, "You going to see that X² girl? What's her name… Kitty?"

"Sammy." Lucas corrected him. "Where did "Kitty" come from?"

"Her powers. She's part cat or something like that."

"Wrong again. She's a feral."

"Which is practically like a human being part cat."

"No it isn't."

"How is it not?" Rashad opened his eyes and looked at Lucas as if wanting him to challenge him with a retort.

"Well…" Lucas tried to think, while Rashad gestured Lucas to continued, "There's… no. But she… no." Lucas sighed in defeat, "Alright."

"Alright what?"

"You're right. I'm wrong."

"And don't forget it." Rashad smirked as he closed his eyes again.

Lucas sighed as he looked around the place. "So why are we waiting around here? I mean, the sooner we start to train the sooner I can get out of here." He crossed his arms, almost looking like a two-year-old pouting.

Rashad gave up any hope of resting his eyes before training, so he opened them. "The girls said they have "things" to attend to before they train." He rolled his eyes. "But can you honestly not wait to see your girlfriend?" He smirked.

"She's not my girlfriend." Lucas smirked back.

"Ah, Lucas did someone reject you?"

"Lucas Connelly doesn't get rejected." He chuckled.

"Except when it comes to Sammy, you do."

"Can we stop talking about her?"

"Sore subject?"

"No, it's just… I just don't want to talk about her anymore." _Why is Rashad such a hardheaded person? Damn him…_ Lucas sighed.

"Oh fine. We'll stop talking about her. Happy?"

Lucas smirked. "Yes."

About twenty minutes pasted in silence between the two boys. Rashad stared up at the ceiling, lazily, while Lucas fidgeted while looking around the eerie living room.

Finally, Rashad stood up and stretched. "I'm sick of waiting."

Lucas smiled as he stood up too. "Now that's more like it."

"Don't think I'm doing this for you, Connelly."

"Right. Just wanting to train."

"Right."

Rashad finished stretching and started to walk towards a dark hallway, which led to a room similar to the Danger Room but it wasn't the Danger Room.

"Hey Rashad?" Lucas asked as he jogged after Rashad.

"How many times do I have to remind you Shocker?" Rashad rolled his eyes and he looked ahead of himself but he was speaking to Lucas.

"Oh right. Use codenames while going towards training. Got it Sonic." Lucas chuckled as he was now walking along side of Rashad.

"So what was it you wanted to ask me?" Rashad stopped in front of a large metal door. The door looked as if it had a vicious creature hidden behind it. The metal must have been at least a foot thick. Rashad typed in the code and the large metal door pulled apart.

"When did Miracle and Aphrodite say they'd be back?" Lucas asked as he looked around and saw old pictures of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants on the walls. All down the hallway that Lucas and Rashad walked down there were pictures, newspaper articles, and mug shots of any evil mutant that ever existed before team Chaos (Lucas and Rashad's team). The most of the medias of any mutants before the Hell Era were destroyed there still were some left.

Team Chaos was modeled after all evil mutants that walked before them. Though Lucas was friends with a member on the X² team, he still understood and fully accepted that when it came time he would side with his team against his rival team, which was X².

"Soon."

Lucas came out of his daze and followed Rashad into the bright light of the room that was like the Danger Room.


	5. Attitudes Collide To Form A Friendship

**Author's Notes:** 1) I'm **sooooooooo** unbelievably sorry everyone who has been waiting for this chapter. I got a severe case of Writer's Block, and it just wore off the other day so I finished this chapter right away and I've begun on Chapter 5. So hopefully that'll be up soon.

2) This chapter is dedicated to PsycheX's friend who passed away recently. You're in my prayers and I hope you feel better. I'm so sorry for your loss, but like you said: She's in heaven.

3) Also in this story, other comics (i.e. Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk) don't exist in this story, except as comic book characters.

**A New Age.**** A New Team**

Chapter 4: Attitudes Collide to Form a Friendship

A young girl that looked about sixteen, with black hair that was in dreadlocks with green eyes, walked into the large library that had books stacked to the ceiling, carrying a thick history book in her arms as she made her way back towards her usually table. As she came closer to her table, she saw a young man with black hair, which was pulled back into a ponytail, and ice blue eyes sitting in her seat, reading. She walked closer to the table and dropped her book on top of the table with a bang. She placed her hands on the table, on either side of the book, and leaned forward.

"You're in my seat." She said as if demanding him to move.

The young man, who looked about eighteen years old, looked at the girl and then looked back down at his books.

_No one ignores Tonya Sorenson._ The girl, Tonya, thought. She softly chewed on her lip ring in frustration. "Excuse me. Did you hear what I said?" She said being annoyance in her voice.

"Yes." The young man said in a thick southern accent.

"So you know you're in my seat?" She said with attitude.

"I heard you loud and clear." He turned the page of his book and continued with his reading.

"Then you know I want you to move."

"We don't always get what we want." The man's ice blue eyes shifted back and forth, as he read the words in his book.

"I do." She sat up straight and crossed her arms.

"Your point?" The young man asked.

"Move." She said bluntly.

"Why should I?" The young man had yet to look up from his book.

"Do you know who seat's you're sitting in?" Tonya was slightly amused by the breath of fresh air this new young man was bringing to her dull life at the institute, but at the same time she was annoyed by him being so difficult.

"I'm guessing yours."

Tonya opened her mouth to say that the seat was hers but stopped when she realized his answer was correct. "Well… Yeah. But do you know who **I** am?"

The young man sighed and finally looked up at Tonya with slight boredom on his face. "I have a feeling that if I don't ask you, you'll tell me."

"Well yeah." She said as if that was obvious. "I'm Tonya Sorenson." Tonya said proudly.

"Well nice to meet you Tonya Sorenson. I'm Gabriel Octavian," he held his hand out to her as a proper introduction. "But you can just call me Gabe."

Tonya looked down at Gabe's hand as if it was carrying some disease and then she looked back up at him. "Well **Gabriel** Octavian, you're in my seat and you need to move."

Gabe brought his hand back to him and raised an eyebrow. _That was rude. _"I go by Gabe."

"Well I'll call you Gabe if you move." She smirked.

Gabe shrugged his shoulders and moved over to the seat next to Tonya's seat. "There." He slid his book across the table to him and began to read again.

Tonya grabbed her history book and moved around the table to sit in her seat. She sat down and glanced over at Gabe out of the corners of her eyes. "You're new here, aren't you?"

"Yeah." Gabe said in his thick southern accent.

"Well it's nice to have a breath of fresh air… Annoying fresh air, but still fresh." She chuckled. "Everyone around here is the same. They either are dark and mysterious or happy-go-lucky," Tonya chuckled while she shook her head in amusement by her comment. "So it's nice that you're here to stand out from everyone."

"Yeah. I guess." Gabe shrugged with a smile. "Guess that's what I'm here for." He smirked.

"So what's with the accent?"

"What do you mean?" He glanced at Tonya from his book.

"What do you think?" There was no response. "I was pretty much asking you where you're from." She said as if it was obvious what she was asking him.

"You should have said that from the beginning." He smirked. "Rome, Georgia." Tonya raised her left eyebrow, which was pierced, as if deciding if that was a real place or not. "It's a small town."

Tonya chuckled. "Ah." Then there was a long silence between the two of them. _Well how do you respond to **that**? _Tonya thought as she opened her history book and tried to concentrate on it but failed. She pulled her Fantastic Four comic book from the back of the book and placed it inside of the history book. She began to read her comic though it looked like she was reading the history book.

She flipped the page of her comic with a small laugh at a strip of Johnny Storm making a wise comment to his sister Susan. Gabe glanced over at her as he finished his book and set it down. He noticed that Tonya wasn't reading her history book but reading a comic book. He stared at the pictures in the comic book that Tonya was reading and automatically recognized it. "So you like the Fantastic Four?" He smirked.

Tonya stopped reading and slightly looked shocked that he had actually noticed that she wasn't reading her history book. "Um…" _Damn. Busted._ "Yeah." She sighed in defeat. "Childhood favorites." She softly smiled at the comics. "I moved around **a lot** when I was younger and these comics are something that never changed." She shrugged as she shook her head. "It's kind of silly."

Gabe shook his head, "No. It's perfectly understandable."

Tonya closed the history book on the comic and pushed them away from her. She folded her arms on top of the tabletop and looked at Gabe, "So what's your codename?" She asked, trying to change the subject.

"Octavian. Nothing special." He shrugged. "What's yours?"

"Counterstrike." Tonya said proudly and then paused. "But what are your powers if your name is your last name?" She raised her left eyebrow up at Gabe. "I mean, that's not all that special." She looked over at him with slight confusion on her face. "Most people choose names that reflect their powers or…"

"Isn't that kind of private?" Gabe interrupted her.

"Here? Nothing's private." She shrugged. "Besides Cerebro has a database of practically all living and dead mutants ever alive." She smirked. "So if you don't tell me I can just go look it up."

Gabe placed his hand over his heart. "I didn't know you cared so much." He chuckled. "But I can manipulate shadows." He smirked mischievously and then changed the subject away from him. "So if your codename is Counterstrike and, like you said, most people choose a codename that reflects their powers then your powers are…" He pondered. "Something to do with hitting your opponent back?"

"Close." Tonya laughed, "It's a little complicated."

"Can you show me?" Gabe suggested.

"Yeah." Tonya perked up. "Hit me." She smiled.

"Excuse me?" Gabe asked in shock.

"Did I stutter?" Tonya teased. "I said hit me."

"My mom taught me never to hit girls."

"I'm giving you permission… Just do it." Tonya laughed, but Gabe shook his head no. "If you don't hit me I'll hit you." Gabe arched an eyebrow at Tonya, then Tonya shrugged. "Fine." She punched his arm.

"Hey." Gabe gasped in shock that she actually hit him.

"If you don't hit me I'll keep hitting you."

Gabe sighed in defeat. _Forgive me mom. _He hit Tonya's upper arm lightly, not wanting to hurt her since he didn't even want to hit her in the first place.

The hit didn't even hurt Tonya, but she felt the little energy Gabe put into his hit soak into her body. She felt her body double the energy and she hit Gabe's upper arm. Gabe was slightly knocked back by the punch. He rubbed his arm where she hit him. "I thought you said that if I hit you, you would stop hitting me." _That's__ strange. I wouldn't think someone who looks like Tonya could hit so well._

"I told you my powers complicated." She laughed. "I guess a good way to describe it is when I get hit I can take the energy used to create the hit, double it and then hit someone back with the doubled energy."

"I think I understand what you're trying to say."

"But as you can see, someone has to hit me first." She shrugged as if it didn't bother her. _Alright__, so he's not as bad as I thought before… He's actually pretty cool. He's sarcastic, fires back at me…_

"That got to suck." Gabe laughed.

_He's__ annoying, but not in that bad kind of way. _"Thanks captain obvious." She said sarcastically, "I know that." Tonya rolled her eyes. _I could see myself become friends with this Gabe Octavian fellow._

"No problem." He smirked and stood up.

Tonya rolled her eyes. _Honestly, this guy just thinks he better then everyone!_ She smirked to herself. _Just like me at times… I like him! Someone to sit around with me and make fun of all the people here… Or plot against Hecate, one or the other._ Tonya smirked to herself at the thought, as Gabe sat back down.

"What are you smirking about?" Gabe asked as he scooted closer to the table.

_Hey, maybe both!__ Make fun of people **and** plot against Hecate._ "It's nothing." She chuckled and continued with her thoughts._ If I'm lucky I can get to do both._

"Well then if it's nothing you can tell me." He smirked.

"I just thought of an inside joke that I had with my friend, Charlotte, who I knew when I lived in England."_ I did live in Ireland for three years. That's got to count for something, right?_

"Maybe someday you can tell me about that joke." He noted that there were some faint hints of scars on her arms but Tonya's black sleeves covered them for the most part. _And__ maybe someday you can tell me about those scars too._

Tonya tugged her sleeves over her arms, though she hadn't noticed that Gabe had noticed them. "Maybe." She smirked.


	6. A Name For The Dream Of Fire And Water

**Author's Note:** Please forgive me for chopping sentences, grammar and spelling errors, and things that plain don't make sense. One, I suck at English. Two, I don't have a beta reader so that means I beta reader myself (AKA I never reread until after I post – lol). Three, I write most of these chapter at about 2 – 4 in the morning so at the time they seem right but since I'm half asleep anyway, they're not. So please just excuse those things and if you spot them, please, e-mail me at and copy and paste the passage the errors in and then point out the error to me that way I can fix it as soon as possible. Thanks again and enjoy the chapter!

**A New Age. A New Team**

Chapter 5: A Name for the Dream of Fire and Water

"Is that right?" An eighteen-year-old girl with green eyes asked hopeful.

A very tan eighteen-year-old young man leaned forward to look at the work the girl had done on the paper. His shaggy dirty blonde hair fell forward covering his brown eyes though he could still see. "Well…" The young man's voice had a hint of Australian accent in it.

The girl put her hands over her face making her black shoulder length hair, which had red tipped bangs and orange tips on the back of her hair, fall slightly forward. "Damnit." She huffed in frustration. "I'm going to flunk this test, Sean." She sighed.

The boy, Sean, laughed. "Grace, calm down. You understand everything else in the class." He placed a comforting hand on her back.

Grace sighed and looked up at Sean, resting her chin in her hands. "But I don't understand this part."

"You do to understand this." Sean sighed.

Grace and Sean both had been in the den with both their math books next to them and their notes strewed out all over their table for the majority of the day. They had a math test coming up and as the leaders of X² team; they had to set examples of having good grades for everyone else on the team. The two of them had been studying all day and when they weren't studying their math they were talking about ways to improve the team and the members of the team.

"No I don't." She lazily tapped her eraser of her pencil to the paper. "You did that 'Well…'," She mocked him, "thing that you do when you're trying to be nice to me and not make me feel bad for getting the wrong answer."

"You did everything right." Sean smiled at her.

"I what? You mean… I get it?!" Grace was bewildered.

"You need to remember…"

"…Oh here it comes." Grace rolled her eyes and then dropped her head through her hands and banged it against the table once. "Ouch." She said without emotion, though it did rather hurt hitting her head on a wooden tabletop.

Sean chuckled. "No Grace. You just need to remember that when square rooting a fraction you can't have a square root in the denominator."

"Can we stop studying?" Grace asked while talking into the table. "Either I know it or I don't, and class is in about two hours."

"Well if you feel comfortable with all this…" Sean sighed as he laid his pencil down on the book. _Which I know you'll say you don't feel comfortable with this, then rant about not knowing it and that's that, then figure it out in the end._

"How do you think I feel about this?" She said bitterly. _Stupid math test. Burn. I hate this. Honestly! When am I **ever** going to use square roots or Side-Angle-Side Theorem?_

"I think you know it but you just don't think you do." Sean smirked.

"Sean I think you've been staying underwater at Atlantis a little too long. I think the salt water is starting to affect your grasp on reality." She smirked down at the tabletop. "Just face it Sean. I don't understand this part of math and so I'll fail this part of the test but the rest of the test I'll just have to make sure I rock at that part." She sighed heavily.

"It's always the same case with you Grace." He laid his head on the table next to hers and smiled at her, knowing she could see him out of the corner of her green eyes. "You think you can't do something, rant about how you can't do it, you end up doing it and then you rock at it."

"Then why mess with a good thing?" She smirked and then lazily rolled her head to the side to look at Sean, in defeat. "How do I get rid of it?" She asked unenthusiastically and she had a look as if saying 'Since you're Mr. Know-it-all'. _He's probably going to ask me to try now._

"Well give it a try and see if you can do it." Sean smiled.

"I knew you were going to say that." Grace muttered.

"And I knew you were going to say you give up. Just like I know you're going to figure this out." He shrugged. "You always do."

Grace glared at Sean and then looked down at the paper. She pointed with her pencil's eraser, sounding unsure of herself as she spoke. "Multiply both the numerator and denominator by the square root in the denominator place so that the denominator becomes whatever number was being square rooted in the denominator place in the beginning?" She sounded slightly hopefully but mostly unsure.

"That's right!" Sean sat up, grinning.

"That's right?"

"That's right." Sean nodded.

Grace looked down at her paper and nodded her head with a smirk. "I'm going to do fine on this test." She said with confidence.

Sean laughed. "I told you that you'd figure it out."

Grace laughed as she began to pack up her belongs except for her team notebook. "Does it scare you to know that you and I can know exactly what the other one is thinking or about to say?" She smirked as she finished packing up her backpack and zipping it closed.

"It used to." Sean finished putting his books and notes away too. "But I got over it." He zipped his backpack shut.

"Yeah." Grace set her team notebook on the tabletop and flipped to her most recent entry. "So down to teamwork business now that math is taken care of." She smirked happily.

Sean flipped to his most recent entry too. "Right. So you want to talk about Gabe or–"

**DING**

Sean and Grace were slightly startled by the doorbell but they played it off by turning their heads to look out of the den towards the general area where the front door was.

"Visitors." Sean nodded.

"I'll get it." Grace stood up.

"I'll go with you." Sean stood too.

"I'm a big girl Sean." Grace laughed as she walked down the hallway towards the large entrance hall where the front door was. "I can manage to answer a door." She smirked behind her at him.

"As both the leaders we're partners, and partners have to have each others back." He said jokingly, fully knowing Grace could handle herself.

"I doubt anyone from Chaos or a Sentinel would come to our house, let alone use the doorbell." She laughed as she placed her hand on the doorknob to the large front door.

"You never know. It could be Shocker from Chaos to see Sam." He shrugged.

"One. He would never step foot in this house. He meets her in the front lawn. Two. I don't understand your friend."

"Who? Sam?"

"Yeah. I mean don't get me wrong I like Sam, but she's so close with a member of the enemy's team." She pulled the door opened to see Saria (AKA Switch) standing there with Dawn by her side.

"Saria?" Sean said a little surprised.

"Miss me amigos?" Saria smirked.

Grace and Sean stepped out of the way, as Saria walked into the mansion entrance hall with Dawn following closely behind. "What are you doing back?"

Saria looked around the place. "Found ya a new recruit. Meet Dawn Kent."

"Hi." Dawn said slightly shy.

"Hello Dawn." Sean smiled. "I'm Sean Parker, codename Poseidon because I pretty much can do anything underwater. I'm half Atlantean." He said proudly.

Grace rolled her eyes. "I'm Grace Strokes, codename Spitfire and I control fire through touch." She chuckled. "And you're going to have to excuse Sean he gets excited when new people arrive."

Dawn laughed lightly. "I don't mind, but what's an Atlantean?" _Sounds kind of like Atlantis but that's just a myth… Right?._

"See she doesn't mind." Sean smirked. "An Atlantean is someone from Atlantis. You know. The city that suck beneath the sea."

"Oh." Dawn was amazed. _It's not a myth?! Well I guess I shouldn't put anything past myths because this mansion is still standing._ "That really cool."

"Well while I **love** this moment between ya I have things to do." Saria crossed her arms. "Where's Cannon?"

"Weaponry lab. Where else?" Grace laughed as Saria started to walk away.

"Wait!" Dawn called after Saria.

"What?" Saria turned around but she began to walk backwards.

"Aren't you staying with me?"

"No. They'll take care of you." Saria disappeared into the shadows of the hallway. "Don't worry."

Sean put his arm around Dawn's shoulder and Grace walked along the other side of Dawn. "We'll take you on a tour of the mansion and along the way you can meet the other kids here and we can learn about you." Sean smiled down at Dreamer since he was taller.

"Why isn't Saria coming?" Dawn asked not that she was worried. Just curious.

"Saria never joined a certain team. She was trained here but when Cerebro asked her to join X² she declined and left." Grace nodded.

"Oh." Dawn nodded. "Does she come around here often though?"

"Yeah." Sean nodded. "Her and a member of our team, Cannon, are weapon and technology whizzes. So she comes around a lot to check out our weapons and technologies that Cannon has built for us."

Dawn nodded her head. _Where's his tail? I mean don't most Atlanteans need tails to swim in the ocean._ "Um… Not trying to offend you or anything, but do Atlanteans have tails? You know. Like mermaids."

Sean laughed. "No. Half Atlanteans don't have tails, and neither do pure blooded Atlanteans."

"Oh. Sorry." Dawn slightly blushed with embarrassment.

"But pure blooded Atlanteans do have blue skin and webbed fingers and toes."

"Really?" Dawn was shocked. _Blue skin?_

Grace directed them down a long hallway towards the den. "So what's your codename?"

"Poseidon." Sean grinned making Dawn laugh.

"Not you Sean." Grace laughed.

"Oh. Sorry." Sean jokingly held his head down in shame.

"I don't have one."

"Well what are your powers?" Sean raised his head and chimed in.

"I can fly and anything I can think of I can make a real." Dawn smiled.

"Any others?" Grace asked.

"Not that I know of."

"Hmmm…" Sean pondered. "Got any nicknames?"

"D for Dawn or Fay because that's my middle name." Dawn shrugged.

"Not what I was hoping for in a nickname." Sean sighed.

"Well I daydreamed a lot on the drive from Toronto to here so Saria kept calling me a daydreamer."

"Well what do you think about the codename Daydreamer?" Sean smiled.

"I like it." Dawn smiled back.

"Too long." Grace pointed out. "Something smaller. Like just Dreamer or something."

"Oh I like the codename Dreamer!" Dawn giggled.

"Well then it's settled." Sean laughed.

_Dreamer? Dawn "Dreamer" __Kent_ Dawn thought. "I like it." She grinned at Sean and Grace both. "My name is Dawn Fay Kent and my codename is Dreamer." She said proudly.


	7. Training Chaos

**Author's Notes: **I'm soooooo sorry everyone, I've been so busy that I haven't had any time to write… Mid-quarter grades, partying, tests and quizzes, hanging with friends, homework, ect. It's hard, but here's chapter 6…

**A New Age.**** A New Team**

Chapter 6: Training Chaos

Rashad (AKA Sonic) and Lucas (AKA Shocker) sat on different level platforms in the middle of a very large circular room.

"Sonic, exactly, how soon is soon?" Lucas raised an eyebrow up at Rashad who was on a higher platform then Lucas.

Rashad glared at the entrance door. "With Mary-Lynn and Natalie? Who knows Shocker?" He sighed and looked down at the ground.

The entrance door opened and a fairly short girl who looked about seventeen walked into the Chaos Danger Room. "But Natalie not everyone can look as good as us." She swooned in her thick southern accent, making her curly blonde hair sway.

"This is true Mary-Lynn." A short British girl smirked.

Both girls were dressed to a tea in tight, fashionable clothes that showed off all their curves. The southern girl, Mary-Lynn, was slightly more laid back in her clothes, which were tight-fitting black pants and a jacket. The British girl, Natalie, was dressed to a tee. She was wearing powder blue short shorts, a pink spaghetti strap tank top, and white tennis shoes.

Mary-Lynn looked up at Lucas with her violet eyes. "Hey y'all." She wiggled her fingers in a wave at Lucas and Rashad.

"You're late." Rashad said as he stood up.

"Miss us?" Natalie smiled innocently batting her eyelashes to her silver eyes and then walking into the shower area and reemerging wearing a white sports bra, biker shorts, and tennis shoes.

"You're late." Rashad repeated again as he flew down to stand in front of the two girls.

"You're point Suga?" Mary-Lynn smirked as she unzipped her black jacket revealed a tight purple tank top.

"Exactly what I mean… You're late." Rashad was getting frustrated with the two girls and it was noticeable in his voice.

_If Mary-Lynn and Natalie would just be on time to this training session then Rashad wouldn't be angry._ Lucas sighed as he stood up on the platform, making him higher up then Rashad and the two girls. _And__ I could go to see Sammy._

"Well the more time we waste chatting the later the day becomes." Natalie pointed out.

Rashad smirked devilishly at Natalie. "I have all the time in the world to train."

"Well I don't!" Lucas shouted from above them. "Can we get this thing started?"

Natalie locked her eyes on Rashad's as she walked to his side and away from him. She began to get ready to begin the training, leaving Mary-Lynn and Rashad by themselves.

"Ready Aphrodite?" Rashad asked using Mary-Lynn's codename.

"Oh we're using codenames, are we?" Mary-Lynn said with attitude dripping in her voice.

"Yeah. We always do during training. Nothings changed."

Mary-Lynn shrugged her shoulders and turned around so her back was to Rashad and she was facing Lucas and Natalie. She curled her finger, signaling Natalie to come to her. While Natalie was making her way towards Mary-Lynn, Mary-Lynn looked over her shoulder at Rashad. "It's not proper for a southern bell to yell."

"Is this important?" Rashad crossed his arms as he was growing more and more annoyed with Mary-Lynn and her antics by the second.

"Everything I do and say is important." Mary-Lynn winked at Rashad throwing a little of her mutation, which was to produce a scent that made men fall for her. Rashad nodded and walked away so he could set up the program for their training.

"Yeah Mary-Lynn." Natalie asked as she jogged up to Mary-Lynn.

"Oh no. It's not Mary-Lynn. It's Aphrodite." She made sure her voice was loud enough for Rashad to hear so he knew she was mocking him.

"Rashad's making us use codenames?" Natalie said unenthusiastic.

"Yes he is." Mary-Lynn sighed.

"Alright Mary – I mean Aphrodite." Natalie smirked and then turned around to return to her position.

"Already Aphrodite?" Rashad shouted over his shoulder.

Mary-Lynn looked around at Lucas and Natalie, who nodded to her.

"Aphrodite?" Rashad shouted again. "Argh!" He started to the program up and a blast went at his feet immediately.

While Lucas was shooting balls of electricity out to stop the attacks and Miracle infected the simulation of the X² team with multiple diseases, Rashad made his way over to Mary-Lynn.

"Why didn't you respond?" He asked her as he shot a sonic blast at one of the X² simulations.

"I told you… Southern bells don't yell." She smirked as she moved her hand out in a liquid movement attracting some of the simulations of the male members of the X² team.

Rashad rolled his eyes and flew off into the air. "Shocker watch your back!" Rashad shot a sonic blast against a simulation to protect Lucas who was about to be attacked by the simulation from behind.

Lucas turned around and jumped out of the way; as the sonic blast took out the simulation but it almost hit Lucas too. "Watch where you're shooting that thing Sonic!" Lucas shouted to Rashad as he stood up.

"Watch your own back and I won't have to save your ass!" Rashad shouted back at Lucas and then flew off.

Lucas rolled his eyes. "Don't worry. He takes these training sessions too seriously." Natalie smiled at Lucas as she pushed her back against his. Two separate simulations were attacking Lucas and Natalie.

"Duck Miracle!" Lucas shouted and Natalie dropped to the ground. Lucas shot out two electricity balls out at both the simulations, destroying them.

When the two simulations were destroyed Lucas offered his hand to help Natalie to her feet. "Thanks."

Lucas smiled. "No problem." He spun her around and dipped her down, having one of his arms around her waist. He shot a electric blast out destroying a simulation that was trying to attack Natalie from behind.

"My knight in shining armor." Natalie smirked up at Lucas as he swung her back up to standing on her own feet.

"That's what I'm here for."

"You know it's only your Scottish charm and accent." She dusted some dust off her shorts.

"Keep telling yourself that Miracle." He kissed her cheek making a tiny spark happen when his lips met her cheek and then Lucas ran off to attack another simulation but the simulation program stopped. "What the–?"

"Trainings over!" Rashad called out.

Lucas looked over at Natalie who had the same confused expression on her face. They both looked down at Rashad who had Mary-Lynn on his arm. Lucas and Natalie looked back at each other and smirked. They quickly went to the showers to clean up and when they were done Lucas and Natalie quickly left.

"See ya around Suga." Mary-Lynn winked at Rashad as she left to take a shower and clean up. _I know it's wrong to use my power to cut training short, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do._


	8. Southern Attractions

**Author's Note:** Oh geez. I'm unbelievably sorry you guys. I'm such a lazy bum shakes head in shame I had terrible writer's block and school, then Finals. shakes head It's been a rough year, but I finally got back on the story wagon. Hehe.

**A New Age.**** A New Team**

Chapter 7: Southern Attractions

A young girl that looked about the age of eighteen, slid a piece of layered dark auburn hair, with lighter brown highlights, behind both of her ears revealing both her ears were double pierced and both the cartilages were pierced too. She was wearing flared jeans, a silverfish tank top, and her zip up hoodie was on the back of her chair. Normally, she would have concealed her black angel-like wings from everyone, but today she didn't feel like it. She kept her wings closed up as much as possible in order not to take up too much room.

She lazily flipped the page of her library book as her green-brown eyes read over the words, until she was interrupted by the voices of Tonya and Gabe talking. She raised her left eyebrow at them, which had a barbell in it. _He's__ kind of cute._ Jazmine, the girl, thought about Gabe. _But__ I'm not going to start liking some boy without ever really getting to know him or talking to him…_ She smirked as she looked back down at her book and went on with her reading. _But__ he is cute._

"Alright so everyone has a guilty pleasure." Tonya smirked to Gabe. "Mine's the Fantastic Four." She leaned on the history book that concealed the Fantastic Four inside of it. "So what's yours?" She raised her pierced eyebrow at the Georgia man.

"Hmm…" Gabe pondered as he looked up in the air at nothing in particular; it was just something he did when he pondered. "I would have to say…" He chuckled at the thought. "It's stupid. Never mind." He shook his head.

_What the?__ That's not fair! _"No I wanna know." Tonya sat up straight and had this irritated look on her face as her green eyes stared at Gabe. "I told you, and it's only fair that you tell me **Gabriel**." She smirked, as she knew he didn't like her using his full name.

"I already told you," his southern accent coming out clear, "its Gabe." He said as he picked up his philosophy book and went back to reading it.

Tonya slammed Gabe's philosophy book down out of his hands onto the table. "No." She said sternly as she kept her hand on top of the book so he couldn't pick it up again. "Tell me."

When the loud echo of the Tonya slamming Gabe's book against the wood of the desk echoed throughout the library, Jazmine slightly jumped in her seat and almost dropped her book on mystical creatures, but she caught it before it also hit the desk. Her greenish-brown eyes glanced over at Tonya and Gabe and she sighed in slight frustration. It was a library after all and you were **supposed** to be quiet, but Tonya wasn't. Jazmine quickly looked away when Tonya's green eyes looked over at her.

"Fine… it's poetry." Gabe said softly because many people made fun of him when he said that, but Tonya wasn't necessarily paying attention.

"Arg." Tonya huffed in frustration as she stared at the back of the girl who was at least two years older then Tonya, but that didn't seem to scare Tonya one bit.

"What?" Gabe asked. _I don't think she heard me… Good._

"I hate it when people don't MIND THEIR OWN BUSINESS." Tonya said loud enough so that Jazmine could hear it. However, in case Jazmine didn't hear it, Tonya glared at the back of Jazmine's head with her green eyes staring daggers at her.

Gabe raised an eyebrow at Tonya and then followed the direction of her green eyes with his ice blue eyes until they fell on the back of a girl who looked about the same age as he was. He glanced back at Tonya and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Oh, just forget about it Tonya." He smirked softly at her.

"Fine. Whatever." Tonya rolled her green eyes at the back of Hell's Angel and then looked back at Gabe. "So you like poetry, huh?" She smirked with a smile laced in it.

"Huh? What?" _She heard me._ Gabe's ice blue eyes went slightly large from Tonya's comment, but they quickly returned to normal. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh don't play dumb Gabe. I heard you." Tonya smirked. "Your guilty pleasure is poetry."

Jazmine rolled her greenish-brown eyes at her book; pretending it was Tonya, and then she went back to finishing her reading on mystical creatures.

The large wooden doors to the library slowly opened and Hecate entered through them. Her platinum blonde hair was left down without the blood red clip holding it back and her deep blue eyes looked around the library as she entered. She was dressed in a crimson red tub top and baggy black gangster pants that hung onto her hips; showing off her hipbones, which her left hip had small black cross on it. She walked over to the book drop-off and carefully began to fill out the card to return the book.

"Oh great." Tonya muttered as she rolled her green eyes at Hecate and then looked away from her.

Gabe didn't take his ice blue eyes off of Hecate as he watched her move around the library. "What's wrong?" He asked, though his eyes didn't leave Hecate.

Tonya glanced over at Gabe and then made him look at her. Her green eyes revealed it upset her that Gabe was looking at Hecate. "That's Hecate." She sighed being disgusted by even the name 'Hecate'. "You don't wanna know her."

Gabe glanced out of the corner of his eyes at Hecate who looked over at him for a moment, but then Gabe quickly looked back at Tonya. "Why not?"

Tonya scoffed as if everyone knew why and that it was some surprise that Gabe didn't. "Get this." She chuckled. "She thinks that I, Tonya Sorenson, am lighthearted, happy, and hyperactive." She said in offense and Gabe just chuckled at the thought. "Are you laughing at me?" Tonya said in shock.

"No. It's just funny that it upsets you that much." Gabe chuckled.

"Whatever." Tonya rolled her green eyes and looked back at Hecate, as did Gabe.

_There's__ something about her. _Gabe thought as he watched Hecate look over a shelf of books to find another one to check out. _I can't put my finger on it, but there's something that intrigues me._ He let out a tiny chuckle and then looked at the table then back over his shoulder to get one last glance at Hecate.

Hecate ran her fingers over the binding of each of the books on the shelf looking over each title of the mythology books. She pulled the occasional one out every now and then and flipped through the first couple of pages and then casually slipped it back into the shelf. Hecate's dark blue eyes looked over the bindings of the books and then stopped when she felt someone watching her. She paused for a moment and then very nonchalantly she turned around and headed back towards the front of the library.

She noticed it was Tonya and some new person who were staring at her. Hecate couldn't help but smirk to herself as she slightly looked down at the ground as she walked. _Great.__ That hyperactive Tonya girl. _She thought as she continued to walk. Hecate glanced over at the guy next to Tonya and noted the tattoo going down his arm like a tendril, wrapping around every now and then and twisting around. She softly smiled to herself. _Tattoos.__ Not bad._

Tonya watched as Hecate walked passed her and Gabe's table and then Tonya's green eyes went wide as Hecate winked at Gabe and continued to walk passed them. _SHE DID **NOT** JUST WINK AT HIM?!?! She did, didn't she?_ Tonya thought angrily as she glared daggers at the back of Hecate's platinum blonde head.

Gabe was just as shocked as Tonya was, except his was nowhere near as angry as hers was. Actually it was the exact opposite. _Did she… I think she did._ Gabe looked to either side of him as if someone was to tell him it was true. _She did wink at me._ His thoughts were interrupted when Tonya pushed her chair back from her and stood up. She picked up her history book, which held her Fantastic Four comic in it, and turned on her heel.

"I'm out of here." Tonya snarled as she stormed out of the library in irritation with Jazmine, but more with Hecate. Gabe's ice blue eyes followed Tonya out of the library, though he, himself, didn't get up from his spot at the now lonely table.

Hecate sat down at a table and then looked up to see Jazmine sitting across from her. Hecate's deep blue eyes stared at Jazmine's black angel wings and cringed slightly. "What are those?" She whispered in disgust.

Jazmine looked up at the platinum blonde sitting across from her. "What are what?" She followed the girl's deep blue eyes, looked at her wings, and laughed. "Oh. They're my wings." She smiled. Hecate rolled her deep blue eyes, looked at the girl's silverfish tank top, and shook her head in disgust. She opened her book up and began reading the mythology book.

_What the hell__ is her problem?_ Jazmine thought as she rolled her eyes at the girl. "My name's Jazmine. My codename's Hell's Angel." Jazmine tried to say friendly towards the other girl.

Hecate didn't even look up from her book. "Your point is?" She said with her voice obviously not caring.

Jazmine's mouth fell open at how rude the girl was being towards her. "Look, what's your problem? I haven't done a damn thing to you and all you've been is mean to me." Jazmine said in irritation.

Hecate sighed in frustration that Jazmine wasn't letting her read in silence. She folded her arms on top of her book and looked up at Jazmine lazily. "What's my problem?" Hecate repeated with a chuckle. "To be honest…" She looked to either side of her as to make sure that no one was near to hear her. "I just don't like you." Hecate smirked sarcastically and then went back to reading her book.

Jazmine couldn't believe her ears and then just shook her head as she looked around. _Bitch._ She thought as she picked up her things and left the library, quietly.

Hecate paused from her reading and watched the girl leave; noticing she got to her because Jazmine's feathers were ruffling a lot as she left. Hecate's deep blue eyes glanced over at Gabe and their eyes locked on each other, which made Hecate smirk and then go back to her reading. _Oops._ Hecate thought with a slight smile; not feeling the least bit sorry for how she acted.

The large wooden doors to the library opened once again and an extremely thin girl, who looked no older then seventeen, with red curly hair and green eyes walked through the door. She looked around from side-to-side, which made her curls bounce. She seemed slightly frantic, but not overly frantic. Her green eyes locked on Hecate as she jogged over to her. "Hey Hecate." The redhead said in a thick Irish accent.

Hecate looked up at the redhead and gave a soft, slightly sympathetic smile to the girl, "Hey Aurora." She folded her hands on top of her book once again and looked up at Aurora. "What's wrong?"

"Have you seen Sean?"

"No. Go ask Cerebro." Hecate gestured to the front desk of the library where a large computer was filing books away. She turned her attention back towards her book before Aurora could say anything else.

"Alright." Aurora said softly and then slowly made her way towards the front of the library. Her green eyes glanced over at the young man (Gabe) and smiled softly at him.

Gabe's ice blue looked at the Irish girl who had just walked in and he felt himself smile at her presence. She was much different from the other girl's he had seen and met. _She's__ pretty._ He said and then laughed at how childish that sounded in his head. _I sound like I'm a five-year-old boy._ He smiled over at the redhead, named Aurora. _Nevertheless, she is pretty._

Aurora looked over at the new young man who was obviously new to the institute. Her green eye twinkled nervously and she felt like a young schoolgirl as she kept looking over her shoulder back at the young man. Her high cheekbones began to show a soft rose color over them as she blushed when her green eyes would meet his ice blue eyes. She laughed lightly to herself as she stopped at the front desk were Cerebro was. "Um… Cerebro?"

"Yes Aurora Doyle?" The mechanical voice answered.

"Can you tell me where Sean is?"

"Locating Sean Parker…" Cerebro paused for a moment as it used it's sensors to located where Sean was in the institute. While Cerebro was busy locating Sean, Aurora glanced over her slightly pale shoulder over at the young man and blushed again as she looked away with a giggle. She looked down, which made some of her red curls fall forward over her green eyes, and then she glanced back at him through her curls. "Sean Parker located."

Aurora looked up at Cerebro, "Where is he?"

"Heading towards the Danger Room."


	9. Meeting A Cat Of Stone

**Author's Notes:** I'm terrible. Plain and simple. I'm so sorry to all. Just bare with me please… Hehe.

**A New Age. A New Team**

Chapter 8: Meeting A Cat Of Stone

The large room known as the Danger Room had the hologram device on to make whoever is training inside see, smell, feel, and taste whatever images were selected. The images in play at the moment was the Danger Room in it's normal setting which was a completely metal room that had different things and machines flying out of the wall at the trainers…

A young man dressed in black sweatpants with no shirt, which showed off his toned muscles and the large scar that went from his upper right shoulder down to his lower left side, who had straight shaggy sandy brown hair, jumped up on one of the boxes that shot out of the walls with a smirk. His grayish blue eyes looked down at a girl white had auburn colored hair that was pulled back into a high ponytail and she was dressed in tight black spandex pants and a white sports bra. The girl's green eyes with flecks of hazel in them glared at the boy as she jumped up along side the walls after him. The boy put up his muscular arms in defense as the girl threw punches at his head and body.

"Oh come on Sam," The boy chuckled as he easily blocked the girl's punches, "you're not even trying."

"I know," The girl, presumably Sam, laughed, "I don't wanna hurt ya Noah."

"Fine." Noah scoffed as he caught Sam's wrists in the middle of one of her punches and threw her over his shoulder so she fell towards the ground.

Sam twisted her body around, landed on the ground on all fours, and stared up at Noah, who had jumped off the box and was heading to jump on Sam. She rolled on her back away from him, as he landed on the ground, and then she spun around, on the ground, and kicked his feet out from underneath him. Noah fell to the ground with a thud as Sam flipped up onto her feet and crouched down to continue fighting. "Oh did I hurt you Noah?" Sam mocked.

Noah slowly got up and looked over at Sam with a smirk. "Of course not."

"Good." Sam said before charging at Noah.

Noah gripped Sam, flipped her over and pinned her to the ground. "I win." He smirked down at Sam who was struggling underneath him.

"You. Do. Not. WIN!" Sam shouted as she managed to curl her legs underneath Noah and then push him off her. She hated losing, but more importantly, she hated losing to Noah of all people.

She and Noah had been rivals in everything since they both knew each other. They were rivals in anything possible and everything became a competition for them with each other. Sam took it a little more seriously then Noah, who always was very light-hearted about the whole competition situation, but they both were very adamant about it with each other. They both were second-in-command over X² and they both had some of the top marks in class.

Sam could feel her anger begin to build inside of her as she felt like Noah was winning, when they really were matched in powers. _Take the defense way out._ Sam thought as she turned away from Noah and took off running; jumping up on the boxes that shot out of the walls. She bounced off them with precision and ease.

"You running away Sam?" Noah laughed as he ran after her and then once he thought he had caught up to her, he had realized she was nowhere to be found. He paused on one of the boxes and looked around to see where she was.

"No. Just doing this." Sam laughed as she flipped behind Noah and then kicked him from behind to make him fall off the box, but luckily, he landed on one directly below. "You rely on your sight too much. You need to use your other senses." Sam laughed.

"Sorry Sam, some of us aren't Ferals." He smirked.

"Well then it sucked to be the people that aren't." She laughed as she chased after him.

Noah turned around and it was in a flash that he seemed to have the upper hand once again. He flipped Sam over him over and over again. He dodged her punches and kicks like he never had before. He cupped his hands together and hit Sam across the shoulder and sent her flying across the ground. _Forgive me mother for hitting a girl._ He thought as he ran after her sliding body to attack again.

Sam's anger grew so much that she felt her body tense up and begin to change. She felt the tips of her fingers, her fingernails transform into short claws, and her canine teeth grew in length and became slightly pointier. Her head whipped to the side and she looked over at the charging Noah. Her once green eyes with hazel flecks flashed yellow, then back to green, and then they morphed from green into yellow and her pupils became tiny slits in her eyes just like a cats would. Her ears became slightly more pointed then normal and she crouched up. She casually stood up in front of Noah and smirked. "Alright let's play now." Sam took off charging towards Noah as he charge towards her.

_We said no transforming._ Noah thought as he shook his head, narrowed his grayish blue eyes at Sam's cat-like eyes and continued to charge.

Sam pushed off the ground and flipped over Noah to land behind him, but Noah had other plans. Noah transformed into his gargoyle state. His California tanned skin, thickened and became rough and grey like stone was. His height grew taller by a good couple of inches and bat-like wings sprouted from his back with a cracking sound like stone breaking apart. He easily raised his arms into the air and caught Sam in midair.

"Ah!" Sam shouted in a hissing voice as she struggled under Noah's grip. Noah's grip didn't loosen on Sam's toned body as he held her tightly. Noah flapped his bat-like wings and slowly him and Sam lifted off the ground and began to soar into the air of the Danger Room. "Put me down!" Sam shouted as she struggled under Noah's grip.

"Only once you admit I win."

"Never." Sam huffed as she was tiring herself out with all the struggling she was doing. Sam did what she could to get out of his grip. In one swiping motion, Sam scratched her claws across Noah's left forearm and his right bicep.

Noah let out a yelp as her claw grazed the top of his stone arms; not puncturing him, but definitely scratching him. Sam put her hands on his shoulders and flipped off him, in between his bat-like wings. She fell towards the ground, twisting around and around, until finally when she landed on the ground she was on her hands and feet, just like a cat would land. She looked up at Noah, who was in the air flapping his wings and rubbing his arms, and she smirked up at him. _Should have just let me go when I told you to._

Sean, Grace, and Dawn walked down the long hallway together towards the large metal doors of the Danger Room. "So where are we heading to now?" Dawn asked as she looked up at Grace.

"The Danger Room. It's where we all go to train." Grave replied.

"Cerebro, who runs the school now, creates holograms that are lifelike and that are how we train." Sean smiled down at Dawn, as they grew closer to the metal doors.

"Wait," Dawn stopped, "isn't Cerebro a computer?"

"Yup. Our school's run by a computer." Grace laughed while Sean typed in the code to open the large metal doors.

The large, foot-wide doors opened up with a bright light behind them and once Sean, Grace, and Dawn's eyes came into focus, they found Sam in her half cat-like transformation and Noah in his gargoyle state. Dawn's dark brown eyes went wide at the half cat girl and gargoyle boy.

"They're at it again." Grace laughed as she walked into the Danger Room. "Cut it out! We got a new recruit!" She shouted at the two.

"Don't worry." Sean whispered to Dawn with his sweet Australian accent as he place a soft hand against her back and slowly led her inside of the Danger Room to meet Sam and Noah.

Sam was crouched on the ground and she slowly stood up as Noah flew down from the sky. Cerebro opened up a cabinet with towels that Noah and Sam walked over to and grabbed towels. Noah walked over to Sean, Grace, and Dawn as he patted his face of the sweat on it, and then he laid the towel over his shoulder. As he walked over to Dawn, his body transformed from his gargoyle state back into his human state. His gray skin became soft once again and returned back to it's tanned color. His stone bat-like wings sounded like stone shattering as they slowly slipped back into his back once again.

Dawn watched in awe, as the man who once was a gargoyle was now normal again. When Noah reached Dawn, he stuck out his hand with a friendly smile. "Hi. I'm Noah Grissom."

Dawn shook his hand. "Dawn Kent. Codename Dreamer." She smiled up at Sean and Grace in happiness. "That's a neat power you both have there." She smiled happily that he was nice, even though his gargoyle appearance made him seem mean.

"Codename Clutch." Noah smiled just as Sam came over, who was still in her half cat-form. "And thank you. It is neat to have wings." He laughed.

Sam looked over the younger girl with her cat eyes. _Another one to train, which only means another one to look out for… _"Sam Wilder." Sam nodded as she stared down at the younger girl, a little coldly.

"Can you transform into more of a cat?" Dawn's dark brown eyes twinkled in delight at the thought of a girl transforming into a cat. _Just as that professor did in those wizardry books my mom told me about for generations ago. Those were **really** popular._ "Like grow fur or something?" Dawn asked in excitement that there were other people out there like her, or that had stranger powers then hers.

Sam glanced over at Sean. _Are you serious?_

Sean nodded his head to Sam with a smirk. _Be nice._

Sam slowly transformed back into her human state. Her claws slowly went back into being Sam's fingers and fingernails, her fangs went back to being normal canine teeth, her slightly pointed ears went back to being normal size, and her yellow cat eyes slowly morphed back into her green eyes with the hazel flecks. Dawn watched in awe as Sam transformed back into a normal girl right in front of her dark brown eyes.

"No." Sam said slightly coldly.

Dawn closed her mouth and looked at Sam in slight embarrassment for asking such a "childish" question, or at least it seemed childish to Dawn after Sam reacted to it. "Sorry." Dawn whispered as she looked down at the ground, away from Sam.

Sam patted her face of the sweat the glistened on it and then placed the towel over her shoulder. She walked passed everyone and stopped next to Sean, where she leaned over and whispered. "She's going to be a lot of work."

"And I'll know you'll take care of her." Sean smiled over at Sam and patted her back.

"I'm going to class." Sam did her signature wave, which was a salute, to the group as she walked off.

Noah looked down at Dawn and laughed as he too gathered his things to leave for his next class. "Don't pay any attention to her. She's rough on everyone at first. Just be happy you're not me." He laughed and then left to go to his next class.

"Let's get you to your room." Sean said as he led Dawn out of the Danger Room.

"I got to finish studying, you mind taking her?" Grace asked Sean.

"Nope."

Sean walked Dawn down the long hallway with pictures hanging on the wall that the more artistic students of the institute had drawn. "This is the girl's dorm wing." He noted as he stopped outside of a dorm. "And this is your dorm." He smiled at Dawn as he opened it up just as Tonya came running out.

"Sorry. Can't talk. Got class." Tonya said in her British accent as she waved to Sean.

"That was your roommate, Tonya Sorenson," Sean laughed. "But Tonya this is your new roommate, Dawn Kent. AKA Dreamer."

Tonya turned around and ran backwards. "Hey. I'm Tonya. Sorry I can't stay and talk. See you later." She waved and then took off running towards her class.

Dawn laughed at her new roommate and then looked inside of the dorm and smiled. It was the first place she could actually call home since she found out she was a mutant. The first place she had been accepted… However, more in importantly: the first place she had ever felt safe.


	10. Sparked Rivals Linked

**Author's**** Notes:** Alright, here's the deal folks. I've officially outlined the entire story! cheers I've outlined for 55 chapters. I know that's a lot. Sorry. However, before you break out the party hats, there's a catch… Writing every character is getting hard and I'm finding myself concentrating on certain characters. Sorry to say it, they just fit into the storyline easier and better. So though I love you all and I thank you for your support, I must admit that some characters I've used in the past won't be showing up as much as others… Sorry!

**A New Age.**** A New Team**

Chapter 9: Sparked Rivals Linked

Just outside the walls, but still within the cement gates of the Mansion, a utopia that was almost eerie in how beautiful and peaceful it was in the world of destruction and fear. It was full of both new and old trees; some with fruits, some had flowers, but the one thing that made these trees different from the other trees around the world was the fact that these trees were fully growing on their own, instead of depending on the human race in order to survive. Everything was alive within the cement walls of the Mansion, as if when Apocalypse happened, someone removed everything within the cement gates and once all the destruction was over, they placed it back within the gates, untouched. Xavier's mansion garden was one of four natural gardens lift in the entire world; any other garden was made by humans and completely relied on humans in order to survive.

Linx dark hazel and light hazel eyes focused on her Thai Chi movements as she did a quick, swift kick in the air and then spun around. Her short flipped out black hair, with tiny pieces of red underneath, spun around as she did. She took a deep breath in as she slowly centered herself, as she brought her body to stand up straight and together. She closed her eyes as her hands rested in front of her chest, with her palms pressed together, and she concentrated on the breathes as they slowly came into her lungs and softly were pushed back out.

"Nice moves." A voice said slyly.

Linx slowly opened her eyes to see a muscular man with yellow eyes and dark brown curly hair that came to his neck. He was wearing a white shirt that fit to his muscle quite nicely, and a pair of baggy black jeans.

"Orion, so nice to see you again." Linx said calmly and she walked towards him. She held out her pale hand to shake his, but Orion kissed the top of her hand instead.

"The pleasures is all mine, I assure you." She said as he looked up at her, from kissing her hand, and smiled.

Linx slowly slid her hand away from Orion and rolled her eyes as she wiped the kiss off on the edge of her long baggy red shirt and her dark blue jeans. "So what are you doing back here?" Linx asked calmly as she used the sleeve of her baggy shirt to pat the beads of sweat from her forehead.

"I came to see you darling." Orion said sweetly.

"Give it a rest Orion. I'm not interested." Linx said with a small smile on her face as she turned around and walked back to the small black bag at the base of a tree. She crouched down to her bag and unzipped it. She pulled out a water bottle and took a long drink from it.

The summer's heat had been extremely hot this year. It seemed as if every year the summer's heat got hotter and hotter. Since Apocalypse happened the Earth's ozone layer had become exceptionally thin, which cause the summers to only get hotter with each passing year.

"I will if you want me to." Orion smiled.

The door from the Mansion that led out to the garden opened up, and Hecate walked out with her platinum blonde hair swaying from side to side as she walked. "Oh, I swear some of the people Cerebro let's in…" She sighed in frustration.

Orion and Linx's attention turned from one another towards Hecate. "What's wrong Hecate?" Linx asked.

Hecate shook her head as she walked closer to Linx with her head down. "I met the new chick that Cerebro admitted into the institute – Hell's Angel." She shook her head. "I mean that girl is so–" Hecate stopped mid-sentence when her deep blue eyes fell upon Orion. "Sparks." She said coldly as she stopped in front of Orion (Sparks) and Linx.

"Ah my precious Hecate, how are you?" Orion said smugly.

"A lot before you got here." Hecate fired back.

"Oh I knew you missed me."

"Like I miss being chased by the Sentinels."

Orion leaned over to Linx and smiled as his yellow eyes locked on Hecate's deep blue eyes. "She's just playing hard to get."

"Oh you're unbelievable." Hecate sighed in frustration as she was trying her hardest not to use her powers on Sparks.

"I know." Sparks smiled. "That's what you said last night."

Hecate's deep blue eyes grew large with hatred. _Screw powers! I'll kill him with my bare hands._ She thought.

Before Hecate had the chance to attack Orion, Linx stepped in between the two and changed the subject quickly. "So what's so bad about this new girl?" She asked, as Orion stood behind her smiling proudly at the very pissed off Hecate.

Slowly, Hecate's deep blue eyes lost their hatred as she got her emotions under control. _He just wants a reaction out of me… He's like a five year old little annoying brother._ She thought. _Who constantly hits on my friend and me._ She shuttered and then turned her attention back to Linx and her question. "She has wings." She said plainly and in disgust.

Linx raised an eyebrow at Hecate and glanced at Orion, before looking back at Hecate. "Is that the only reason you don't like her?" Linx couldn't help but smile a little in how strange of a reason that was not to like someone.

"No." Hecate protested.

"Then what else is the matter?" Linx asked as Orion walked over to the tree near Linx's bag and sat down.

"I don't know. There's just something about that girl that I don't like."

Orion unzipped Linx's bag and started to look around, and out of the corner of Linx's eyes, she saw what Orion was doing. She focused her mind on the zipper of her bag zipping shut, and her telekinesis quickly zipped the zipper shut just as Orion was quickly pulling his hand out of her bag. He had a large innocent grin on his face as he stared up at Linx, who just shook her head with a slight smile on her face and then turned her attention back to Hecate.

"Well you always did have a good judgment of character." Linx nodded.

"If you believe that then why do you still talk to that fool?" Hecate glanced over at Orion.

"Hey!" Orion said in a playful offended tone as he stood up to walk over to the girls.

"Because unlike you I like to **try** to give people benefit of the doubt." Linx sighed as she defended Orion, but not too much because she knew if she did Orion would make a comment about how Linx **must** love him.

"Not a smart move." Hecate shook her head. "Easy way to get taken advantage of."

"Or a risky way to make an alias." Linx countered Hecate's comment quickly.

"Oh Hecate, you just wish I would take advantage of you." Orion said sheepishly.

"No I just wish you'd drop dead." Hecate looked over at Linx. "Can't you grant me that one wish? It can be my birthday wish, and I promise I'll never ask you for another favor again."

Linx cocked her head to the side and gave Hecate a look of 'real funny'. "No Hecate, I cannot grant that "wish" for you." She sighed. "I don't have any power of death in this realm, just the power over death in the Dead Realm and Limbo."

"I know, I know, just hopeful wishing." Hecate smirked at Orion.

And with one simple sentence, Orion shut Hecate up. "You know you want me."

Hecate jaw dropped open in a mixture between shock and horror at Orion. She was stunned that he had the tenacity to say that to her. To her face at that.

"I wouldn't want you if your were the last **human** on Earth!" Hecate said with anger as the sky slowly started to grow from a bright and hot sunny day to a grey and stormy night. The clouds began to grow thick with deep, dark shades of gray and the sky itself swirled from a light blue into a dark black.

"Oh now you've done it." Linx whispered to Orion as everything around her was becoming dark.

"What was your first clue? The dark clouds or the look of death in her eyes?" Orion smirked as Linx walked over to the tree and grabbed her bag.

Linx walked over to Hecate with her bag on her shoulder and walked over to Hecate. "Just forget about it Hecate." She tried to compromise with the girl of darkness.

"Fine." Hecate huffed as the sky that had slowly became dark and black quickly warped back into light and Hecate grabbed Linx's wrist. "We're leaving." Without warning, Linx found herself being dragged back inside back the force of Hecate. Linx knew that if she tried to struggle against Hecate when Hecate was this pissed off, that Hecate might not realize her own super strength and break Linx's wrist, so Linx thought it was better to just go along with her.

Linx walked along side Hecate; leaving Orion standing in the middle of the beautiful garden. As they got to the door, Hecate threw the doors open and started to drag Linx through the doorway, but right before Linx disappeared through the doorway she glanced over her shoulder at the tall man standing in the middle of the garden and gave a weak smile before being yanked inside.

Orion (Sparks) stared at Linx as she pulled through the doorway and when she looked back and Orion saw those two different colored hazel eyes take a second to glance at him one last time he couldn't help but smile. He turned around, put his hands into her pockets of his baggy black jeans, and walked away with a smile on his face.


	11. Three Is A Rival

**A New Age.**** A New Team**

Chapter 10: Three Is A Rival

"Who were the Federalists and Anti-Federalists?" Cerebro's mechanical voice said over everyone in the classroom.

No one in the entire class raised their hands as they all buried their noses in their books to hide from Cerebro calling on them, except for Noah and Sam. They both raised their hands at the same time.

"Mr. Grissom, please answer my question." Cerebro asked, as Sam sighed in frustration for not being called upon.

"The Federalists favored the constitution in establishing a strong government and they favored limited state power, while the Anti-Federalists opposed a strong government, supported power of states, and supported the Bill of Rights." Noah said proudly.

"Very good No–" Cerebro started to say but was quickly interrupted by Sam.

"The Federalists also didn't believe in the Bill of Rights and were supported by large farmers, while the Anti-Federalists were supported by small farmers and believed the nation should be a small republic." Sam said smugly and glanced over at Noah when she was finished, and Noah just rolled his grayish blue eyes at her and went back to reading his US History book.

"Excellent Miss Wilder."

Someone in the back of the class began to do a fake cough to cover-up their words. "Kiss ups." Then there was a couple giggles from some of the students in the classroom.

Noah turned making his shaggy sandy brown hair sway a little, as he turned around to see Tonya smirked at him. "What?" She whispered sheepishly.

"You're just calling us suck ups because you're mad that we actually pay attention during class and get good marks, unlike yourself." Noah smirked at her, making his grayish blue eyes twinkle, and then he turned back around.

Tonya glared at the back of Noah's head in disgust but she bit her tongue and stayed quite. _There's__ no point in fighting with him when Cerebro's looking after us. I'll lose, be put on probation, and he'll get some kind of an award or something._ She rolled her green eyes and looked out the window are the large fountain in the front of the school. _Stupid kiss ups._

"Class listen up," Cerebro started. "we have a project due for Us History on the Golden Era. I thought it would be more interesting to learn about the era the original X-Men lived in, then something about entirely different world." Some of the class rejoiced, while other grown in annoyance. "The subject is broad, which means you and your group must agree on any topic you please that has to deal with the Golden Era." There was a pause as some of the kids in the class leaned over to their friends and started talking about their groups. "The downside is that I will be choosing your groups this time." There was a large groan from everyone in the class. "Each group will have three members… The first group is Samantha Wilder," Sam looked around the class at her potential partners, "Noah Grissom," Sam glared over at Noah and rolled her eyes in annoyance while many of the students whispered about how much they were going to fight, "and Tonya Sorenson." Many kids in the class let out giggles, while Tonya let out a large groan and slapped her hand against her forehead.

Quickly Tonya's hand flew up into the air before Cerebro could call out the next group. "Yes Miss Sorenson?"

"Can I have different partners?" She pleaded.

"No Miss Sorenson."

The entire US History class slowly filed into the large library and took their seats in a large area with lot of circular tables. Each group took a certain table and sat down.

"The rest of the period is yours and your groups to decide on a topic and get to work." Cerebro said to everyone.

Tonya, Noah, and Sam glanced around at each other as they sat in silence around their tables. Tonya had never been able to speak more then two sentences to Noah without finding a way for both of them to end up fighting. Sam and Noah had always been rivals with each other since the day they both arrived. Noah never liked talking with Tonya because anything out of his mouth, she had to try to correct, even if she was wrong at times. Moreover, Tonya never listens to Sam, and since Sam at times can be controlling that just makes her more mad at the situation and Tonya.

"Well since no one's going to say anything, I'll be the first… I think we should do it on the music of the Golden Era." Tonya said as she leaned backing her chair.

Noah rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath, "That won't get us an A."

Tonya leaned forward and in the direction of Noah, "What? I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you." She said sarcastically.

Noah turned towards Tonya, "I said that won't get us an A."

Tonya felt her blood start to boil and she shook her head. _Don't__ get mad, don't get mad… Oh screw this!_ She thought. "You got a better idea Grissom?" he said bitterly. "I don't hear you saying anything but putting down **my** ideas."

"Because I know that I can't think of anything right now, so I know when not to open my mouth… Unlike some people."

Tonya's mouth dropped open a little but she quickly fired back, "At least I'm trying."

"Just like you try in class?" Noah asked as he raised an eyebrow at her.

"Screw you Grissom."

"Good come back Sorenson."

"Both of you shut up." Sam interjected in annoyance. "You both are bickering like brother and sister, or like two year olds. Just shut up." She said as she looked at Noah and Tonya, who were seated on either side of Sam.

"I don't hear anything coming out of your mouth **Samantha**." Noah hissed.

Sam glared at Noah. "It's Sam, and it's a little hard to think when you two never stop bickering."

Tonya crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair in annoyance. She decided to just let those two bicker, then Cerebro can catch them fighting and deduct points from them.

"Oh for once Miss Smarty-pants can't think of something." Noah sarcastically said.

"Look Grissom–" Sam started, but quickly Cerebro came over them.

"Is there a problem Miss Wilder and Mr. Grissom?" Cerebro asked calmly in it's mechanical voice.

Sam glared at Noah and then shook her head, "No."

"No Cerebro." Noah said.

"Good."

_What?! No points taken off? If that had been me I would have been deducted… Damn computer._ Tonya huffed. "So what's our topic?" She said bitterly.

Sam pondered for a moment of a topic that the three of them could agree on, while Tonya glared over at Noah and he ignored her. "We'll do a simple overview on the relationship between mutants and humans–" Tonya and Noah were both about to protest the idea, but Sam quickly spoke, "–we all hate the idea, so if we can't agree to do something we all like, then we'll do something we all hate."

The three of them sat in silence as they contemplated the idea over.

"Fine." Tonya said bitterly.

"Fine." Noah said quickly thereafter Tonya.

"So now we have to decide on three subtopics to the relationship between mutants and humans, then we have to choose which subtopic we're going to go." Sam said as she reached in her giant red and crimson red handbag and pulled out a notebook and a pen. "Alright I'll write down who's going what that way there's no confusion, all agreed?" She asked as she looked from side to side at Noah and Tonya, who both nodded. "Good… Now Tonya what part do you want to do?"

"What are my options?" Tonya said unenthusiastic.

"I think the three subtopics should be: the things mutants went through, the things humans went through, and then the things they went through beforehand in order to get to that point that they were at."

"O…k." Tonya paused in thought.

"Can I have the part about mutants?" Noah asked in annoyance at how long Tonya was taking.

"Hey! That's the one I wanted!" Tonya shouted.

"Fine, I'll take the one about humans."

"Then we're settled, right?" Sam asked, and both Noah and Tonya nodded as they glared at each other. "Good." Sam sighed in relief as she stood up and walked around to the other side of the table and stood in front of the large window. "Then let's get to–" There was a small tap against the window behind Sam, but no one else heard it except Sam due to her acute hearing mutation.

"Sam?" Noah asked. "What is it? What's wrong?" He asked in concern as he leaned in closer, while Tonya rolled her eyes.

"Nothing." Sam said as she slowly came out of her daze.

"Whatever." Tonya huffed as she opened her history textbook and began to flip through the pages to get to the chapter about the Golden Era.

Sam looked over her shoulder out the window and fell back into her trance of staring out the window, while she did that, Noah's grayish-blue eyes watched her carefully. _Something wrong.__ She must hear or smell something, because she only acts like that when her powers notices something._ He thought as he sighed in defeat knowing that if Sam didn't tell him when he first asked, she wasn't going to tell him if he asked again. He slowly pulled his eyes away from looking at her and turned his attention to doing his side of the research project. _It can't be too serious, otherwise she'd inform Cerebro._ Noah took comfort in that thought, though the idea that Sam was troubled by something did bother him.


	12. Paid Day

**Author's Note**: I know my last couple chapters came really quickly and this took so long. Finals are next week, and boys are stupid. Hehe. Not really. Moving on, many people have asked me whether I know which characters I'm not going to be using as much or at all. While I have decided that the characters I have introduced will be making at least one other appearance, I've decided that I'm not going to tell which characters I've decided not to use as much. Sorry. I just don't want people to assume things, because things can change later down the road.

**A New Age.**** A New Team**

Chapter 11: Paid Day

The large dark doors to the Chaos location slowly opened to let a flood of light spill into the dark lair, known to the members of Chaos. Two figures slowly walked down the dark and eerie hallway in silence as the bulky one of the two carried a large sack at their side. As the two figures slowly made their way down the hallway and into the large Living Room area, which had more light the two figures came into view.

There was a young man and young girl walking into the living room. The girl walked confidently into the room though she was quite tiny next to the man. The man walked around the couch and turned the bag upside down onto the table and piles of money spilled on and over the edges of the table. The boy plopped down onto the couch and crossed his feet on top of the money, while the small girl smiled in delight at the pile of cash.

The small girl had shoulder length blonde hair that had been tipped pink and sparkling blue eyes. She was dressed in a pink body suit that was slightly low cut and very formfitting. The dark light that was in the Living Room reflected off the girl's body easily and made it seem as if she was glowing. However, at a closer look is was obvious to see that the girl's skin was made completely of diamond.

"Nice job Ashley." The girl made out of diamond said in a French accent to the boy.

The boy, Ashley, looked over at the diamond girl, which made his shaggy curly brown hair, with blonde highlights, sway slightly. "Not bad yourself Karen." Ashley said with a smirk, which made his green eyes twinkle.

The diamond girl, Karen, did a small stretch, which made her make a tiny squeaking noise as she did it, and her skin transformed from it's diamond form back into it's normal skin. When she finished stretching, she sat down on the opposite side of the couch and leaned forward towards the money. She ran her perfectly manicured nails over the top of the money in delight. "Not bad at all." She said softly.

"I wonder where everyone is…" Ashley asked as he looked over his shoulder, down the dark hallway from which him and Karen had just walked in from and then he looked back around to see if any members of Chaos was anywhere near.

"Don't know." Karen said absentmindedly as her blue eyes filled with desire for the money.

"Stop staring at the money like that." Rush (AKA Ashley) chuckled as he stretched while sitting on the couch; knocking some of the money on the table onto the ground.

"I can't help it, Ashley." Karen said as she leaned back against the couch and looked over at Ashley in an innocent face. "It's just so… _beautiful_." She smirked with an evil twinkle in her blue eyes.

"You're pathetic." Ashley said jokingly.

"I just know that money is the only true perfection in the world. Many don't realize it and even the crinkled dollars are perfect." Karen said seductively and then looked over at Ashley and smirked.

"Next to me." A thick southern accent said.

Moments later the rest of Chaos walked out into the Living Room with towels around each of their necks. Mary-Lynn looked at the pile of money and then at Natalie and smirked. "I mean, we all know that though money is perfect, so am I." Mary-Lynn smirked as she carefully sat down in the small chair near the table and the couch where Ashley and Karen were seated.

"Where were you two?" Rashad asked harshly as he stood across from Ashley and Karen with the table of money in between them.

"Getting money for this month." Karen said plainly, as she looked over at Ashley as if saying 'duh' with her blue eyes.

"We had practice." Rashad bitterly.

"We didn't know." Ashley quickly said to defend Karen.

"How did you not know? Everyone else knew? I mean, even Mary-Lynn showed up for this one."

"Hey!" Mary-Lynn said as if she was offended. "Never mind. You're right. I'm never here for practices." She giggled as she pulled out her nail file and began to file her nails carefully; letting Ashley, Karen, and Rashad get back to bickering at each other.

"See?" Rashad huffed. "If Mary-Lynn knew and **came** then you two should have been here."

"Sorry we thought having money to eat was important." Karen rolled her eyes and shook her head in irritation, as she bit her tongue from saying anything else. "We'll be there next time."

The members of Chaos were all hardheaded in their own personal way, but Rashad was the most hardheaded of them all. In addition, every member knew not to argue with him for too long because you would become the focus of his anger for quite the while. Usually it was Lucas, but if any of the other members stepped out of line, they became his focus.

"You better be. No more screw ups." Rashad spat as he flopped down into another large chair across from Mary-Lynn.

"So, um," Natalie thought aloud to change the subject. "Where's Lucas?"

"Where else?" Mary-Lynn chuckled halfheartedly.

"Seeing his girlfriend." Rashad hissed.

"Is it wrong for him to be talking to the enemy?" Natalie asked in shock as she stared at Rashad in surprise that he let Lucas visit Sam.

"Even if I wanted to stop him, you think I could?" Rashad glared back at Natalie.

"No. I guess not." Natalie said as she looked down.

There was a long pause between all of them, where tension built between Karen and Ashley and Rashad. Natalie sat back cautiously to avoid the fire between the three, while Mary-Lynn ignored it all and concentrated on filing her nails.

"Well I already went over the plan of our "big job" with Lucas, so I think we're all free to talk about it without that annoying Scottish child." Rashad rolled his eyes.

Mary-Lynn snorted at the Rashad's comment. "Oh Rashad you know you love him." The only response Mary-Lynn got from Rashad was him glaring at her.

"Anyway. Moving on," Rashad hissed as he glared at Mary-Lynn. "We've been planning this job for the past couple weeks now."

Natalie sat down on the armrest of the chair that Mary-Lynn was seated in and sighed, while Karen slowly picked up some of the money off the floor and smirked at it. _Perfection._ Karen thought.

"You wanna pay attention, or drool over the money, Miss Prissy?" Rashad hissed at Karen who responded by glaring up at him.

Ashley sighed and spoke softly. "Karen just stop."

"Fine." Karen said bitterly as her blue eyes were locked on Rashad's brown eyes as she threw the money back onto the table and stood up. She walked over to Ashley and sat down next to him.

"Are we every going to get to the damn plan?" Mary-Lynn sighed as she finished filing her nails and looked up at Rashad.

Rashad stood up and walked over to behind the cabinet and pulled out a rolled piece of paper. The rest of Chaos, minus Lucas, exchanged glances with one another and then returned to looking back at Rashad. He walked over and stood in front of the table with money spread over it and unrolled the large paper in his hands. He flipped it over and pushed all the money off the table onto the floor, before laying down a large piece of paper across the table for everyone to look at. "These are the blueprints."

"Really?" Mary-Lynn said sarcastically. "We couldn't tell, thank you so much Rashad for clearing that up for us. What ever would we have done without yo–"

"Can it Mary-Lynn." Rashad hissed as he sat down and held the blueprint down.

"When did we get this?" Natalie asked in confusion as she stared down at Rashad.

"We went and got it last night." Karen sighed.

"Who's we?" Ashley asked as he looked around and when his green eyes caught Natalie's silver eyes he slightly blushed when Natalie softly smiled at him.

"Mary-Lynn, Rashad, and me." Karen sighed. "Enough with the questions."

"I have to agree with her," Rashad said in distaste. "Where, who, or how we got this blueprint doesn't matter. It just matters that we have it, alright?" Chaos slowly nodded their heads and refocused on the plan. "So here's the plan…"


	13. United Techie Rundown

**Author's Note:** I'm a terrible person. I know. I said I would post during Winter Break and then I didn't. So sorry yall. Anyway, this chapter I put in to do a overview of all the mutants I've introduced thus far and t state their powers so there's no confusion. Enjoy.

**A New Age.**** A New Team**

Chapter 12: United Techie Rundown

Saria walked down the long dark hallway with her head held high and her shoulder length brown hair was swinging from side-to-side in her high ponytail. She came upon a large metal door with an X enclosed in a circle on the door. She knocked lazily against the metal making a clanging noise that rang softly throughout the hallway she had just walked. A small camera zoomed in on her and then a retina scan went over her brown eyes that had flecks of blue and gold in them.

"Saria Williams." The metallic voice of some robot echoed down the long hallway as Saria was identified, "Access granted." The metallic voice said again and the large doors with the X on them slowly began to open.

"Geez you got tight enough security around ya hole in the wall?" Saria said in her thick New York accent as she walked through the doors and into the large lab area.

Saria paused as soon as she walked through the doors and looked around the gigantic lab area. "Hey! Where the hell ya at?" She shouted aloud and then put her hands on her hips, while occasionally tapping her foot in slightly annoyance that she wasn't greeted at the door.

"I'm in the back…" A distant voice shouted back at her. "Where I always am."

Saria slowly shook her head from side to side, which made her brown hair that was in a high ponytail softly shake with her head. Her hands dropped from her hips with a huff before she ventured forward towards the back of the large lab.

Throughout the large lab, there were metal machine and machinery from the ground to the top of the ceiling. The machines towered over all that walked through the maze of walls that they had created. It was easy for anyone to get lost, be lost within the lab, and disappear forever.

"Anyone eva disappeared in here and been lost foreva?" Saria teased as she made her way to the back; weaving in and out of the mechanical labyrinth.

"No… Or at least to my knowledge, no one has." The voice from the back of the lab was louder now, but still distant. "Why?"

Saria let out a small chuckle as she looked down at the ground while she shook her head. "I dunno. Maybe cause this place is a frickin maze?" She said as she closed her eyes while shaking her head as she looked up. "I swear, I don' know how ya eva find ya way round this join–" Saria started to say but quickly stopped mid-sentence when she opened her eyes to see the large computer monitor towering it front of her. "What the hell is that!" She shouted in disbelief but no one responded. "Jamal?" She asked with a hint of worry in her New York accent.

"What?" A man's voice asked as he rolled out from underneath the large monitor. "Oh hey Saria." A young African American boy with short dark brown hair and light brown eye, who looked about seventeen years old, smiled. "What do you think?" He said proudly as he slowly stood up off the piece of plywood on wheels and wiped his greasy hands on an old dirty towel.

"Ah." Saria started to say as she slowly walked closer to the boy, presumably Jamal. "Ah…" She took a deep breath in. "Like I said: What the hell is that?" She chuckled as she looked out of the corners of her brown eyes at Jamal.

"My database." Jamal said proudly.

"Your database?" Saria asked as she raised one of her eyebrows at him. "I'm not followin' ya."

Jamal sighed as he tossed the dirty towel onto a counter and disappeared behind the monitor; leaving Saria out in the open in front of the monitor alone. "Well you see." He huffed as reached for a plug behind the monitor. _You think that with having the I.Q. of a genius, I would be smart enough to make sure I pulled the plug out to a point where I could still reach it…_ "Eureka!" He said triumphantly as he grabbed the plug and quickly inserted it into the wall behind the monitor.

"What? What'd ya do?" Saria leaned to the side to see what Jamal had done, but he had already walked out from behind the monitor.

"Come here and I'll explain it to you." Jamal said with a huge grin on his face as he quickly walked over to the keyboard set in the desk, which was among many other buttons, switches, knobs, and dials.

Saria couldn't help but laugh as she walked up next to Jamal's side. "I haven't seen you this excited since you cracked that old professor's old fashion computer's hard drive."

"Ah, you mean the late Doctor Henry McCoy…" Jamal lowered his head and closed his eyes. _A fine mind and man indeed._

"Yeah, that one." Saria said in a nonchalant manner. "So ya were in the middle of showin' me what this thing does."

Jamal glanced out of the corner of his eyes at Saria for being so disrespectful of such a fine man like Doctor McCoy. _Jamal.__ Stay calm. She didn't grow up on his teachings like I did…_ "Yeah, back to my database." He said as a smile grew across her face.

"Ya mind tellin' me bout it without that dorky smile on ya face?" Saria sighed as she cocked her right hip to the side while her hand rested on it.

"I'm sorry Saria, it's just one of my greatest masterpieces." Jamal chuckled. "Anyway, back when the old X-Men were around – GOD rest their souls – Professor Xavier had a machine called Cerebro–"

"Ain't that what runs your school?" Saria asked as she raised an eyebrow at Jamal.

"Yes, but I created a database that stores information on mutants within the mansion and mutants that we encounter." Jamal smiled as he sat down in the chair at the keyboard.

Saria walked behind Jamal, placed her hands on the back of his chair, and sighed. "Alright lets see how this thing works."

"With pleasure." Jamal smiled as he flipped on a switch and the large monitor in front of them came alive. Jamal typed a few series of codes into the computer until they came up on the desktop of the computer. "Sorry about that. I haven't worked it out so that I don't have to type those codes in. In due time though."

"I could help you with that if ya want…" Saria offered as she stared up at the monitor that towered way above her.

"I'd like that Saria." Jamal smiled softly as he glanced over his shoulder at her before looking back at the monitor. "Well let's just bring up some quick files." Jamal quickly typed in some things on the keyboard and windows began to pop up on the monitor left and right.

"Ever heard of a mouse?"

"Yeah… I just don't like them."

"Ya just like show off your computer smarts by using the keyboard instead." Saria smirked as she teased Jamal.

After a few minutes of typing, Jamal brought up Saria's file. "Here's your file." He smirked at the simple file that filled the giant monitor. It read:

**_Real Name:_**_ Saria Williams_

**_Gender:_**_ Female_

**_Codename:_**_ Switch_

**_Power:_**_ Ability to warp reality to her liking (see **Mesmero** and **Mastermind**)_

**_Features:_**_ 5'6, 132 lbs, Brown eyes with flecks of gold and blue, Shoulder length brown hair, Pierced ears, Pierced belly button, Two tattoos: small red and black wings on her shoulder blades and a gecko on her tailbone_

**_Location:_**_New York City__New York_

**_Affiliation(s):_**_ Freelance_

"Sorry there's not a lot of information on you. There's not a lot on any mutant, more then that at least. I haven't had time to program it to do background research on people." Jamal sighed in annoyance. "Just the basics for now."

Saria's brown eyes read over the information on herself in front of her and nodded in approval. "Not bad… Not bad at all." She chuckled. "But I gotta ask…"

"What?"

"What's with the 'see Mesmero and Mastermind' thing next to my power?"

"Oh that." Jamal chuckled. "It's mutants from the X-Men era that had similar powers to yours. I programmed that in so that I can look back in the old records on those mutants and it just saves me a lot of trouble." A small hint of rose spread across his dark cheeks. "I'm lazy."

"Yeah. Ya. Lazy." Saria let out a loud laugh. "That's a good one."

"Ok, well that's lazy for me."

"True. Anyway, I came here to see if ya had any new toys for me to look at?" Saria smiled devilishly.

"Of course."

"Mind getting them?"

"It could take a few minutes…"

"That's fine."

Jamal gave her a nod once and stood up. "Now don't mess with the computer because there's still some glitches I'm working out." Jamal warned Saria as he disappeared into the shadow.

"Whateva." Saria huffed as she sat down in the chair in front of the keyboard and cracked her knuckles. "Let's see who all ya got on this pretty little thing…" She began to type furiously on the keyboard; bringing files up on people left and right. "Let's see who's under the freelance category besides me… Sparks?"

**_Real Name:_**_ Orion Paradox_

**_Gender:_**_ Male_

**_Codename:_**_Sparks_

**_Power:_**_ Ability to make things explode at his thought._

**_Features:_**_ 6'1, 183 lbs, Yellow eyes, Curly dark brown hair, One tattoo: across his back it says 'I am thine own enemy'_

**_Location:_**_Rome__Italy_

**_Affiliation(s):_**_ Freelance_

"Insteresting." She said softly as she closed the 'Freelance' file and brought up to X² file. "Everything I've ever wanted to know about 'em." Saria smirked as she quickly brought up everyone's file.

**_Real Name: _**_Jamal Cannon_

**_Gender:_**_ Male_

**_Codename:_**_ Cannon_

**_Power:_**_ Ability to absorb energy around him and turn it into plasma to shot through his hands (see **Havoc**)_

**_Features:_**_ 6'0, 187 lbs, Light brown eyes, Short dark brown hair, One tattoo: a large cross on his upper left arm._

**_Location: _**_Atlanta__Georgia_

**_Affiliation(s):_**_ X²_

**_Real Name: _**_Noah Grissom_

**_Gender:_**_ Male_

**_Codename:_**_ Clutch_

**_Power:_**_ Ability to transform into a gargoyle-like state.__ Grows wings, skin turns to stone, and grows claws (see **Colossus**)_

**_Features:_**_ 5'10, 150lbs, Grey/Blue eyes, Shaggy sandy brown hair, Long scar from shoulder to side._

**_Location:_**_California_

**_Affiliation(s):_**_ X²_

**_Real Name:_**_ Tonya Sorenson_

**_Gender:_**_ Female_

**_Codename:_**_ Counterstrike_

**_Power:_**_ Ability to absorb energy used against her, double it, and then fire it back._

**_Features:_**_ 5'4, 120lbs, Green eyes, Black dreadlocks, Lip pierced, Eyebrow pierced, Five piercing in each ear, One tattoo: a small biohazard sign on her left shoulder. _

**_Location:_**_London__England_

**_Affiliation(s):_**_ X²_

**_Real Name: _**_Dawn Kent_

**_Gender:_**_ Female_

**_Codename:_**_ Dreamer_

**_Power:_**_ Ability to create whatever she imagines into reality (see **Mirage**)_

**_Features: _**_5'2 ½, 115lbs, Dark brown eyes, Wavy dark brown hair, Double pierced ears, Ear cuff on her upper left ear, Beauty mark under her left eye, Two beauty marks just below her temples on either side. _

**_Location:_**_Toronto__Canada_

**_Affiliation(s):_**_ X²_

**_Real Name: _**_Unknown_

**_Gender:_**_ Female_

**_Codename:_**_ Hecate_

**_Power:_**_ Ability to make a person comatose and she has super strength (see **Nocturne, Psylocke** and **She-Hulk**)_

**_Features:_**_ 5'9, 140lbs, Deep blue, Long platinum blonde hair, Four piercing in each ear, Three tattoo: inside her right hand on her palm is a black crescent moon, on her left hip is a small black cross, and around her belly button is a black sun._

**_Location:_**_ Unknown_

**_Affiliation(s):_**_ X²_

**_Real Name: _**_Jazmine__ Lee-Riuz_

**_Gender:_**_ Female_

**_Codename:_**_ Hell's Angel_

**_Power: _**_Ability to see in the night, fire breath, claws, and black wings (see **Icarus**) _

**_Features:_**_ 5'6, 135lbs, Green/Brown eyes, Long dark auburn with brown highlights, Both ears pierced, Both cartilages pierced, Left eyebrow pierced, Two tattoos: inside her right ankle is the Japanese symbol for 'dream', a black griffin on her neck._

**_Location:_**_ Unknown_

**_Affiliation(s):_**_ X²_

**_Real Name: _**_Unknown/Grim_

**_Gender:_**_ Female/Female_

**_Codename:_**_ Linx/None_

**_Power:_**_ Ability to manipulate Limbo, the realms of the living and the dead, and Telekinesis (see **Magik**and _**_Phoenix_**_)/ None _

**_Features:_**_ 5'7, 137lbs, Left eye is dark hazel and right eye is light hazel, Black hair with bright red highlights underneath, Both ears double pierced, Right cartilage pierced, Three beauty marks in the shape of a triangle underneath her right eye, One tattoo: a small very detailed black cross on the inside of her left wrist / 3'9, 65lbs, Left eye is dark hazel and right eye is light hazel, Medium length black hair pulled back with a white headband, Ears pierced, Three beauty marks in the shape of a triangle underneath her right eye._

**_Location:_**_ Unknown/Unknown_

**_Affiliation(s):_**_ X²/Unknown_

**_Real Name: _**_Gabriel Octavian_

**_Gender:_**_ Male_

**_Codename:_**_ Octavian_

**_Power:_**_ Ability to control shadows (see** Psylocke**)_

**_Features:_**_ 5'9, 160lbs, Ice blue eyes, Long black hair, One tattoo: a design that twists down his arm._

**_Location:_**_Rome__Georgia_

**_Affiliation(s):_**_ X²_

**_Leader_**

**_Real Name: _**_Sean Parker_

**_Gender:_**_ Male_

**_Codename:_**_ Poseidon_

**_Power:_**_ Ability to control water, super-strength, underwater breathing, ability to speak to fish, super speed underwater (see **Sub-Mariner **and **Aquaman**)_

**_Features:_**_ 6'0, 176lbs, Brown eyes, Shaggy dirty blonde hair, Atlantean markings around his right bicep, Diagonal scar from his right shoulder blade to his left side, "X" on his upper left arm._

**_Location:_**_Sydney__Australia_

**_Affiliation(s):_**_ X²_

**_Real Name: _**_Samantha "Sam" Wilder_

**_Gender:_**_ Female_

**_Codename:_**_ Rage_

**_Power:_**_ Ability to turn into half-cat (can grow claws and her eyes turn into cat eyes) AKA Feral. High levels of the five senses, extreme agility and speed (see **Feral** and **Thornn**)_

**_Features:_**_ 5'7, 134lbs, Hazel/Green eyes (they turn yellow when she's half-cat), Shoulder blade length light auburn hair, Both ears are double pierced, Right nostril pierced, One tattoo: a small black paw print on her left shoulder blade._

**_Location: _**_Nevada_

**_Affiliation(s):_**_ X²_

**_Real Name: _**_Aurora Doyle_

**_Gender:_**_ Female_

**_Codename:_**_ Satine_

**_Power:_**_ Ability to feel other's feelings (empathy) and telepathy (see **Empath**)_

**_Features:_**_ 5'7, 120lbs, Green eyes, Curly red hair, Ear double pierced._

**_Location: _**_Ireland_

**_Affiliation(s):_**_ X²_

**_Real Name: _**_Grace Strokes_

**_Gender:_**_ Female_

**_Codename:_**_ Spitfire_

**_Power:_**_ Ability to set things on fire through touch (see** Pyro**)_

**_Features:_**_ 5'4, 125lbs, Green eyes, Short black hair with red tipped bangs and the back tipped orange, Right nostril pierced, One tattoo: a ball of fire on her right shoulder._

**_Location: _**_Chicago__Illinois_

**_Affiliation(s):_**_ X²_

**_Real Name: _**_Ndahiro_

**_Gender:_**_ Male_

**_Codename:_**_ Void_

**_Power:_**_ Ability to control gravity and ability to kill telepaths that try to enter his mind (see **Avalanche**)_

**_Features: _**_6'1, 183lbs, Dark brown eyes, Black cornrows with auburn tints to them, Each ear is pierced, Left cartilage pierced, crescent moon shape birthmark on left pinkie, scar birthmark on his back, Three tattoos: Japanese symbol 'invincible' on his right forearm, Japanese symbol 'immortality/eternity' on his left forearm, a large red serpent starting on his back and ending on his chest._

**_Location: _**_California_

**_Affiliation(s):_**_ X²_

When she finished reading the X² files she glanced over her shoulder in the direction that Jamal disappeared to. "Ya alright Jamal?" She shouted back to him.

"Perfectly fine." Jamal shouted back. "Just getting everything that you'll enjoy."

"Well thank you kind sir." Saria smirked as she turned around and closed the X² files and opened the Chaos files, "Oh now this will definitely be interesting…" She said softly to herself.

**_Real Name: _**_Mary-Lynn Walker_

**_Gender:_**_ Female_

**_Codename:_**_ Aphrodite_

**_Power:_**_ Ability to produce pheromones that attract men to her and to produce a deadly poison on her lips and an antidote in her sweat (see **Stacy X**)_

**_Features:_**_ 5'5, 124 lbs, Violet eyes, Curly blonde hair, Pierced ears, Beauty mark in the middle of her left cheek_

**_Location:_**_Montgomery__Alabama_

**_Affiliation(s):_**_ Chaos_

**_Real Name: _**_Karen Gregoire_

**_Gender:_**_ Female_

**_Codename:_**_ Diamond_

**_Power:_**_ Ability to turn herself and other objects into diamond (see **White Queen**)_

**_Features: _**_5'4, 120 lbs, Blue eyes, Shoulder length blonde hair with pink tips, Ears pierced, Right cartilage pierced._

**_Location:_**_France_

**_Affiliation(s):_**_ Chaos_

**_Real Name: _**_Natalie Coal_

**_Gender:_**_ Female_

**_Codename:_**_ Miracle_

**_Power:_**_ Ability to inflect a wound or disease on someone else, and the ability to cure a wound or disease of someone else's (see **Infectia**)_

**_Features:_**_ 5', 130 lbs, Silver or dark gray eyes, Shoulder length wavy blonde hair with strawberry blonde streaks._

**_Location:_**_London__England_

**_Affiliation(s):_**_ Chaos_

**_Real Name: _**_Ashley Walker_

**_Gender:_**_ Male_

**_Codename:_**_ Rush_

**_Power:_**_ Ability to control water (see **Sub-Mariner** and **Aquaman**)_

**_Features: _**_6'2, 165 lbs, Green eyes, Shaggy brown hair with blonde highlights, Left ear pierced. _

**_Location:_**_ Copis __Christie__Texas_

**_Affiliation(s):_**_ Chaos_

**_Real Name: _**_Lucas Connelly_

**_Gender:_**_ Male_

**_Codename:_**_ Shocker_

**_Power:_**_ Ability to control electricity and the ability to shot electricity blasts (see **Jebediah**** "Jeb" Guthrie**)_

**_Features:_**_ 5'11, 176 lbs, Brown eyes with gold, Dark brown hair with auburn._

**_Location:_**_Glasgow__Scotland_

**_Affiliation(s):_**_ Chaos_

**_Leader_**

**_Real Name: _**_Rashad__ Cannon_

**_Gender:_**_ Male_

**_Codename:_**_ Sonic_

**_Power:_**_ Ability to shoot plasma blasts from his hands, and the ability to fly (see **Havoc**)_

**_Features:_**_ 6'0, 189 lbs, Dark brown eyes, Short dark brown hair, Ears pierced, Four tattoos: a detailed cross on his upper left arm, Superman symbol on the back of his neck, red Sonic the Hedgehog on his right forearm, and 'Thug Life' printed across his shoulder blades. _

**_Location:_**_Atlanta__Georgia_

**_Affiliation(s):_**_ Chaos_

Saria started at the profile on the screen for a moment. _I didn't know Jamal had a brotha._

"What are you doing?" Jamal asked as he stopped pushing a shelf of weapons when he saw the profiles on the monitors.

Saria quickly looked over at Jamal and gasped in her breath. "I was lookin around." Saria said innocently.

Jamal quickly walked over to the monitor, typed a few things in on the keyboard, and then the monitor shut off. "I told you not to mess with it." He said defensively.

"What's the big deal? I said I'd help ya with it so I have to know what's on it and what it can do." Saria glared at Jamal. "What's the matta with ya? There's obviously something on that thing ya don't want people or me seein'…"

"It's just not something I want people snooping around on." Jamal sighed in defeat.

Saria stood up and walked over to the weapons. "Just forget bout it… What are these?"

Jamal followed Saria over to the shelf of weapons. "I brought out all the guns I've been working on." Jamal glanced over at Saria and smirked. "I know how much you love your guns."

"Oh Jamal ya know me too well." She chuckled as she flipped a gun up and aimed it. "Handles well."

"Well I made this one for you especially." Jamal bent down and pulled out a wrapped gun.

"For me? Ya shouldn't have." Saria smirked as she folded the cloth back to reveal a beautifully crafted silver and gun. "Oh Jamal." She gasped as if he just asked her to marry him.

"You like?" Jamal smiled from ear to ear.

In one quick movement, Saria grabbed the gun, twirled it on her finger, and then aimed it ahead of her. "I love it… It's beautiful."

"Well you can't very well walk through the school with that, so…"

Saria looked away from the gun and looked at Jamal, who was holding a black custom case for the gun. "Oh Jamal." Saria stared at the case and softly placed the gun inside. "Thank you." She whispered.

"Don't think anything of it." Jamal chuckled as he shut the lid to the case and locked it.

"I think the world of it… Thank you." Saria whispered as she took the handle of the case and walked towards the door of the lab with Jamal walking next to her.

"Come back soon, alright?" Jamal nodded to Saria who stepped on the other side of the door.

"Will do – Hey Jamal?"

"Yeah?"

"Why had ya neva mentioned ya had a brotha?" She cocked her head to the side as she looked at Jamal, who's face grew sad. "Did I say somethin wrong?"

"No." Jamal quickly said as he looked back up at Saria. "I'm just not real proud of everything he's done. I mean he's the leader of Chaos, my sworn enemies…" He said as his voice trailed off.

"Understandable." Saria sighed. "Well thanks for the gun again."

"Stop thanking me and get going to test it out." Jamal laughed as he typed the code in to close the lab doors.

"Don't have to tell me twice." Saria laughed as she watched the doors slowly close.

"Don't forget to tell me how it works!" Jamal shouted at Saria, who was walking away from the lab, as the doors came to a close.

Saria looked down at the ground as she walked forward and couldn't help but smile. "I won't… Trust me. I won't."


	14. Opposites Attract

**A New Age.**** A New Team**

Chapter 13: Opposites Attract

"Hey Grace!" Sean shouted through the hall with his Australian accent, as he quickly ran down towards her and stopped by her side. "You ready for math?" He asked as his brown eyes sparkled when he gave a tiny chuckle.

"Am I ever?" Grace sighed in frustration.

"Well look at the positive side of it… we get our tests back today in math." Sean said as if it were a consolation.

"Oh joy." Grace sighed in more frustration, and then banged her math textbook against her head. "Ouch." _I got to remember to stop doing that._

Sean quickly pushed her book down from her head and sighed. "Honestly Grace. You've got to stop doing that." He gave her a soft smile.

They reached the math room and Grace turned around to Sean and raised a finger and opened her mouth to say something but decided against it. "Nevermind." She sighed in frustration as she opened the classroom door right as the bell rang to signal that class had begun.

"Hurry to your seats Mr. Parker and Miss Strokes." Cerebro's mechanical voice hurried Sean and Grace nicely.

"Yes Cerebro." They both said as they took their seats, which were on opposite sides of the room.

"As many of you know, you're getting your math tests back today." Cerebro started, and a few students groaned while some other perked up. "However, I'm going to be handing them back at the end of the class that way you aren't distracted while I teach you." The class sighed softly. "Now everyone take out your notebook and a writing utensil so that you can take notes on today's lesson."

The whole class leaned over and pulled out their notebooks and something to write with. They all patiently waited as Cerebro cleared the large monitor screen, which looked like a chalkboard, and began to write done the first part of the lesson it was teaching to the students today. Once Cerebro was done writing on the monitor it began to explain the lesson to everyone, while every now and then stopping to write more on the board.

Slowly time passed, notes were taken, and some students fell asleep, but finally class was over. "Now it's time for what you all have been waiting for… your tests." Once again, some students groaned (Grace being one of them) and some students perked up (Sean being one of them).

A large mechanical arm came down from the ceiling and quickly moved throughout the small classroom and handed back to the math test. For the students, it was normal for Cerebro to use it's mechanical arm to pass back papers, though sometimes the tests were taken on computers and Cerebro graded them that way.

When Cerebro's mechanical arm passed Grace Strokes back her test, the mechanical voice softly spoke to her. "Very well done Miss Strokes." Grace looked up at Cerebro in confusion, but before she had the chance to look at her test the bell signally that class was over rang throughout the school.

"No homework tonight students. Enjoy the night off." Cerebro quickly said as the students in the classroom quickly filed out of the room.

Sean quickly caught up to Grace who was walking down the hallway of students. "Hey Grace! Wait up. Slow down!" He shouted as he tried to catch up to her, and when he did, he huffed and puffed as if he was out of breath. "What's the hurry speedy?" He teased.

"Was I walking fast?" Grace asked in surprise.

"Very much so."

"Oh sorry," She chuckled as she rubbed the back of her neck, "I didn't realize I was. I guess I'm just excited to get out of class." She smiled and then continued to walk down the hallway with Sean by her side.

"Understandable." Sean chuckled.

The two of them walked in silence down the hall towards the library, which is where they normally went after classes to look over team schedules, when Sean broke the silence. "So…?" He asked as he opened the library doors for Grace and then walked in behind her.

"Thank you." She nodded to him and started heading back towards their usual table. "So what?" She asked as she set her books down and raised an eyebrow at Sean.

"So, how'd you do on your test?" Sean asked as if it was an obvious question, as he took a seat next to her.

"Oh." Grace said in shock. "I don't know. I haven't really looked yet. The bell rang before I could." She chuckled.

"Well pull it out. Let's see." Sean laughed.

Grace laughed as she dug through her folder to find the test and when she did she paused and looked at Sean, "Before I show it to you, what'd you get?"

"An A." Sean shrugged.

Grace sighed in frustration. "How do you always get an A in that class?!"

"Shhh Grace. Keep your voice down." Sean chuckled. "I don't know. Lucky I guess."

"Damn you, you smart Atlantean." Grace teased with a chuckle.

"Hey." Sean gasped. "It's half Atlantean missy."

"Oh please forgive me." Grace said as she rolled her green eyes.

"Ok. But just this once." Sean laughed. "Now out with that test missy."

"Ok, ok." Grace laughed. "Geez, calm down." She laughed as she slowly pulled out her test and flipped to the back page only to gasp.

"What? What is it?" Sean asked eagerly.

"Oh my GOD." Grace gasped again.

"What? What?!" Sean asked as his brown eyes tried to desperately see the grade on Grace's paper.

"I got a B." She gasped as she turned to test over so Sean could see. "I got a B!" She shouted.

"Congratulations Gra–" Sean started to say but was quickly interrupted by Grace dropping the test in his lap as she leaned forward, took a hold of his face with her hands, and pressed her lips against his. Sean sat wiped-eyed as Grace's lips were firmly pressed against his. _She's__… She's kissing me?! _His brown eyes stared forward at Grace's closed eyelids before closing his own eyes to return the kiss back to her.

In the shadows of the library stacks a pair of dark brown eyes stared in sadness at the two friends kissing each other. The eyes slowly closed and disappeared back against the stack they were hiding behind. Dawn slowly slumped down onto the ground of the floor and stared at carpeted floor in sadness.

_I knew he wouldn't ever like me like I wanted him to._ She thought as she took a deep breath in and let out a quivering sigh. _I knew he liked her. I could tell he liked her by the way that he looked at her. The way he joked around with her. _She slowly stood up, looked back at the kissing pair through the book one last time, and sighed. _I knew he **couldn't** ever like me like that._

Dawn slowly turned back around and quietly walked out of the library as she forced back her tears of a broken heart. _It was just a stupid crush anyway…_ She thought; trying to convince herself.

Slowly Graces trembling hand slipped off Sean's face, as she slowly pulled away from him. "Sorry." She whispered softly as she looked down at her lap, while her face slightly blushed at what she had just done.

Sean's brown eyes were sill closed after she had pulled away and they slowly opened when she apologized. "Did… Did you just kiss me?" He softly stuttered.

Grace quickly looked up at him and began to speak quickly. "I didn't mean to. I just got caught up in the moment, you know?" She sighed and looked back down at her lap. "I'm sorry." She whispered. _Stupid, stupid Grace.__ Why'd you kiss him? Now things are going to change between you two and you're going to lose a best friend because of a stupid mistake!_

"So you did kiss me." Sean let out a small sigh as he had a small smile on his face. "So I didn't just imagine that happening?"

"No. You didn't." Grace said softly. "I'm sorry I kissed. I was just caught up in the moment."

"Oh. You're sorry..." Sean sighed in almost disappointment, which made Grace look up at him.

"Sean? Are you alright?" She asked in concern. _See?__ Look. You screwed everything up._

Sean's brown eyes looked into Grace's green eyes as he placed his hand against the side of her cheek and leaned closer. "I was just hoping you weren't sorry about it because I kinda liked it."

"Oh." Grace whispered in surprise. _Um…__ What's happening here?_

"Like I was saying earlier," Sean whispered as he leaned closer so that his lips were only about an inch away from Grace's, "congratulations Grace."

Grace looked down at Sean's lips for a moment before looking back up into his brown eyes and whispering, "Congratulations on what?"

"On getting a B." He whispered back as he to looked down at Grace's lips.

"Oh. Yeah. That." She softly chuckled.

"What'd you think I meant?" He asked with a smirk.

"Nothing." _I thought you meant congratulations on kissing you._ She whispered as she slowly leaned forward, closed her green eyes and once again pressed her lips against Sean's. Sean closed his brown eyes and responded to Grace's lips while his hand rested against her cheek and softly rubbed his rub against her soft skin. Grace rested her hands against Sean's chest as softly and innocently kissed his soft lips.

The two of them slowly pulled away with their eyes still closed. They both slowly opened their eyes to look at one another and when their eyes focused on the other one they both gave one another a soft smile. _Congratulations indeed._


	15. Sparks Fly

**A New Age, A New Team**

Chapter 14: Sparks Fly

"Are you sure we're at the right place?" Natalie, also known as Miracle, asked in her London accent, as she slowly pushed back the hood of her cloak to reveal her wavy blonde shoulder length hair.

"Yes. I'm sure." Mary-Lynn said in her southern bell accent before, also known as Aphrodite, sighing in frustration as she too pushed back the hood of her cloak. Mary-Lynn's blonde curls bounced up and down slightly as they were released from underneath the hood of her cloak. Her naturally violet colored eyes glanced around the abandon warehouse that they stood in front of in disgust. She glanced down at the small piece of paper in her hand and then looked back at the building one last time. "Unfortunately I'm sure."

Natalie's silver eyes glanced around the dusty old warehouse and sighed. "I was afraid you were going to say that." She sighed as she walked over to the door and opened it.

The two young girls leaned forward to look inside the dark warehouse that had absolutely no light in it whatsoever. The only form of light within the eerie warehouse was the small amount of light that came in through the dusty skylights above on the ceiling.

"After you." Natalie nodded to Mary-Lynn.

"Scared?" Mary-Lynn smirked to Natalie in a challenging way as she walked into the dark warehouse with confidence.

"No," Natalie smirked back to Mary-Lynn when she walked up and stood by her side. "Just thought you'd like to go first." _Actually, just in case this was a trap of some kind. You're power isn't as effective as mine is in battle._

"Well thank you." Mary-Lynn nodded to Natalie with a hint of a devious smile playing on her red lips.

The two girls looked around the warehouse for a few moments. They both strained their eyes to look into the darkness as if they were looking for someone.

"He did say to meet him here right?" Natalie asked in frustration.

"Yes."

"He's late." Natalie huffed.

"Give him time Natalie." Mary-Lynn said softly. "He'll show… Besides, patience is a virtue."

Orion Paradox, who was also known as Sparks, sat quietly on top of an old wooden crate, which was piled high in the abandon warehouse in which Mary-Lynn and Natalie has entered. His legs were crossed so that he was sitting Indian style on top of the crate, and his hands rested in his lap, while he had his eyes closed. His mind concentrated on the air that flowed into his body, and the air that he forced out. His breathes were long and deep as he shut his sense of sight off and relied completely on smell and hearing. "Took you two long enough." He said calmly from within the shadows.

Mary-Lynn and Natalie quickly started looking around to see him, but neither one of them could find him.

"Where are you?" Mary-Lynn asked.

"Patience Mary-Lynn." Natalie said in a mocking tone. "Remember? Patience is a virtue." She smirked at the southern bell, who just glared back at her.

Orion slowly stood up on top of the wooden crate with his eyes closed and then once he was fully standing he opened his yellow eyes to stare down at the two girls in cloak down below. He quietly flipped down from crate to crate until he landed on the floor. "I'm in front of you." Both girls stared forwards into the darkness and saw nothing… However, when Orion finally walked out from the shadows both girls gasped in surprise at him. "Did I scare you?" Orion smirked as he stopped right in front of the two girls. He stood much taller then both girls, but neither one of the girls were intimidated.

"No." Natalie said coldly as she stared into Orion's yellow eyes with her silver eyes.

"Good." Orion gave a cheeky smile to Natalie and then glanced at Mary-Lynn. "You called me, so what do you want?" He said very business like.

"My name is Mary-Lynn and this is Natalie."

"Orion." Orion said bluntly.

"Let's cut the crap… We want to hire you." Mary-Lynn said coldly.

_Well then.__ Isn't she Miss Demanding. _"For what?"

"Does it matter?"

"Maybe." _Yes._

Natalie looked back and forth between Orion and Mary-Lynn and the asked and answered question in a random way. "We need you in helping with a heist we're going to pull off." Natalie interjected.

"Natalie." Mary-Lynn gasped.

"Now you have my attention." Orion smirked. "How many others involved?"

"Four others." Natalie quickly said.

"A heist with seven people. Tricky stuff." Orion shrugged. "Any dangers?"

"The only danger would be X² if they found out about it." Natalie said softly, but still with confidence.

"But they shouldn't find out about it." Mary-Lynn finished.

_That means I'd be going against Hecate… and Linx._ "I have to think about this." Orion said softly as he turned around and started to head back into the shadows.

Both Natalie and Mary-Lynn exchanged looks. "Stop him." Natalie whispered to Mary-Lynn.

"How?"

"You're the mutant with the pheromone powers, remember? Use them."

Mary-Lynn took a step forward. "Wait." She softly said as she used her power to lace her voice in a pheromone to attract Orion back to her.

Orion stopped in his tracks and looked over his shoulder at her, "Yes?"

"We'll pay you."

"I'm listening." Orion said with a smirk as he fully turned around, but he stayed where he was standing as he folded his arms on his chest.

"Name your price."

Orion smirked devilishly, "It's a lot."

"We'll pay."

_I'm__ sorry Hecate and Linx._ "Then you have yourself a deal.

Both Natalie and Mary-Lynn started to get the same devious smile on their faces as they looked at Orion. "Perfect." Mary-Lynn smirked.

"However…" Orion said calmly.

"Yes?" Natalie smirked.

"I get paid up front."

"Fine." Mary-Lynn smirked. "How much do you want?"

"Five hundred thousand."

"No." Mary-Lynn said coldly.

"No? Well then I walk." Orion said calmly as he turned around and started to walk away.

"The most we'll pay is two hundred thousand."

Natalie leaned over to Mary-Lynn and whispered in her ear, "What are you doing?"

"Trust me." Mary-Lynn whispered back. "Two hundred thousand or **we** walk."

Orion stopped in his tracks and sighed. "Fine." He said as he turned around. "Two hundred thousand it is."

"I thought you'd see it our way." Mary-Lynn smirked as she reached inside her cloak and pulled out a small black box. "Your money."

Orion walked over to her and carefully took the box from her hand. He unlatched the sides and flipped the top open. He flipped through the stacks of hundreds before slipping the box under his arm. "You have yourself a deal Miss Mary-Lynn." Orion said as he held out his hand to her. _Forgive me._

"It's Miss Walker." Mary-Lynn said coldly as she took Orion's hand and shook it.

"Fine Miss Walker, you officially have yourself to service of Sparks… What is it you want me to do?"

"Follow us." Natalie said calmly as both her and Mary-Lynn turned on their heels at the same time and walked out of the warehouse, with Orion walking closely behind them.

The tall Scottish boy known as Lucas Connelly (AKA Shocker), pulled up just a few feet from outside the Mansion and kicked down the kickstand of his black motorcycle. He pulled his matching black helmet off his hair to expose his brown, neatly kept hair, with hints of auburn in it. His brown eyes, which had flecks of gold in them, stared at the large cement walls that surrounded the Mansion and smirked. _I don't know why they insist on these silly walls. Anyone can get over them._ He thought as he swung his legs off his motorcycle and stood next to it. _And__ that security system. Ha. That's so easy to get passed… Well it's show time._

He lifted the seat of his motorcycle up, pulled a grappling hook out, closed the seat, and then walked over to the cement wall. _I have a few seconds to hook the wall, get over and unhook._ He swung the grappling hook around a couple times before throwing it up against the wall. Once the hook as securely hooked, he quickly climbed up the rope, unhooked the grapple, and jumped onto the lawn. He paused for a moment to check if he had set off the alarms, and once he was sure he hadn't he casually walked across the lawn.

Lucas was about to step onto the pebble driveway that led up to the house when all of a sudden he was quickly stopped. "What the?" He said as he struggled to move forward. He looked down at his legs, which were covered in ice and stuck to the ground.

"What are you doing here?" A voice asked in a bitter tone.

Lucas struggled to look behind him and when he finally saw whom it was he sighed in relief. "I'm coming to see Sammy, what else?" He smirked.

A young man with shaggy dirty blonde hair, with a hoop earring through his left earlobe, walked around the side of Lucas and glared at him with his blue eyes. "You know you're not supposed to be on **our** property…"

"Can you unfreeze my legs now, Frosthead?"

"It's Frostbite, and no I won't unfreeze your legs."

"If you're expecting me to apologize about screwing up on your codename just to get my legs unfrozen–" Lucas took a deep breath in, focused his electricity energy on the ice and then shattered it, "–don't hold your breath… Now where's Sammy."

The young man froze his hands and his blue eyes stared down into Lucas' brown eyes. "You're part of Chaos–"

"Thank you Captain Obvious." Lucas interjected.

The young man glared in annoyance at Lucas. "So you're not going any closer to inside."

"Seth." A female voice said calmly, which made both men turn and see Sam walking out across the grounds towards them both. "Lucas doesn't ever go inside." She said calmly as she placed a soft hand on the young man (Seth) with frozen fists' shoulder. "Don't worry about. He'll be gone in a minute." Seth's blue eyes looked down into Sam's hazel-green eyes in protest. "I promise."

"Fine." Seth sighed in defeat and turned around. "Just be careful Sam." He whispered to Sam so that only she could hear him.

"I will be." She gave him a soft smile before Seth walked away; leaving Sam and Lucas alone on the grounds.

"So you always got guys watching your back?" Lucas teased Sam.

"What are you doing here Lucas?" Sam sighed softly.

"I came to see you Sammy… of course." Lucas smiled cheekily.

"Don't call me Sammy." Sam growled. She hated being called that and only Lucas called her that, which pissed her off.

"I'm sorry Sammy–Sam." Lucas quickly corrected himself. "Did I make you mad?" He asked softly as his brown eyes stared at her eyes.

_Remember?__ He saved your life once. You owe him. Be nice._ Sam reminded herself. "No Lucas." She said softly. "But I have to be going…" She said as she turned around to leave.

"Wait!" Lucas said as he grabbed Sam's wrist and turned her around. "Why? I was hoping to talk a little longer then a few moments. I mean I did disobey Sonic and get my legs frozen to talk to you." He smirked sweetly.

Sam couldn't help but give a small laugh at what he said. "I'm sorry Lucas, I have to meet people in the library to work on a report… I'm sorry." Sam said in remorse.

"It's alright." Lucas chuckled as he let go of her wrist. "I understand. Duties call." He shrugged as he turned around and started to walk away from Sam. "But one of these times Miss Wilder…" Lucas chuckled as he turned around to face her, but he continued to walk away from her. "I will talk to you longer then a few moments." He turned back around. "Mark my words." He shouted before disappearing back through the grounds.

Sam stood there alone on the grounds staring at where Lucas once stood. "Whatever you say Lucas." She whispered as she shook her head and walked back inside the mansion.


	16. Caution To The Wind

**A New Age, A New Team**

Chapter 15: Caution To The Wind

"Where is she?" Noah sighed in frustration, as he sat a large table with a seat in between him and Tonya. _This isn't like Sam to be late._

"Dunno." Tonya shrugged as she scribbled little doodles on the front of her history book. Noah glared at Tonya with his grey-blue eyes and then sighed. _If Sam doesn't get here soon that means Tonya and I have to go ahead and work without her…_ Noah glanced at Tonya._ And that's going to end with us blowing each other up._

The library doors opened up, Sam came running in, and she quickly headed back to the table where Noah and Tonya were sitting. "Sorry." She huffed as she sat down in between them.

"What took you so long?" Noah asked as he opened up his history book without looking at Sam.

"Lucas stopped by." She huffed as she opened her textbook also and began to flip to the section they were working on.

Noah, on the other hand, stopped in the middle of flipping a page and then looked over at Sam. "Lucas? As in Shocker from Chaos."

"The one and only." Sam smirked as she stopped on the page that they were getting information from.

"Jealous?" Tonya said without raising her head to look at Noah, though she was smirking as she continued to doodle on her textbook.

"No." Noah rolled his eyes at Tonya's comment, "I'm just wondering why Sam is so buddy-buddy with the enemy…?"

Sam sighed, "I have a good reason, and that should be a good enough reason for you Noah… Now can we please get to work?" She sighed as she looked at Tonya doodling and Noah was just staring at her.

_It's__ not a good enough reason…_ "Fine." Noah sighed as he continued to flip through the textbook, until he was on the same page as Sam.

"Tonya, that means you too." Sam nudged Tonya who glared up at with her green eyes.

"Fine." She huffed before opening her textbook up to the right chapter.

"It's not going to kill you to try a little Sorenson," Noah mumbled as he rolled his eyes as he read over his textbook.

Tonya leaned forward and looked at Noah, "You wanna say it to my face Grissom, or just be a coward and mumble it?" She raised the eyebrow that was pierced at him in a challenging way.

Noah looked over at Tonya and smirked, "I said it's not going to kill you to try a little." He smirked proudly.

Sam rolled her brown eyes at the two. _Here we go again… It was just a matter of time before they started up._

"I am trying, thank you very much." Tonya shot back.

"Not very hard."

Tonya was about to open her mouth to say something back, but Sam quickly interjected. "Look!" She shouted, making both Noah and Tonya look at her. "I wanna get this damn project done without you two bitching at each other every five seconds, alright?" Both Noah and Tonya glared at each other for a few moments, "Alright!" Sam shouted as she took a moment to look at each of them.

"Fine." Noah sighed as he looked back at his book.

"Whatever." Tonya rolled her green eyes and then went back to her book.

A few minutes passed in a tension-filled silence as the three of them work quietly. None of them said a single word to the others and they didn't even make a single noise either. They all sat in silence scribbling notes down on their pieces of paper.

Tonya reached into her messenger bag, pulled out a piece of gum, and stuck it in her mouth. After a few moments of silence, she began to blow constant bubbles and making sure, they popped loudly.

Noah gripped his pen tightly as he resisted saying something until finally he couldn't take it anymore. "Sam!" He shouted as he stared passed Sam at Tonya, but he spoke to Sam, "Sam will you tell Tonya to chew with her mouth closed. The people in China don't need to know she's chewing gum."

Sam sighed in frustration and set her pen down. She turned around to face Tonya. "Tonya? Can you please stop smacking your gum?" Sam really wasn't in the mood to force anyone to do anything at the moment. She had a good day today, but it was shaping to get worse.

"Will you tell Noah, it's a free country to do whatever the hell I please?" Tonya retorted.

"Yeah that goes for me to, so that means I could shut you up if I wanted to." Noah leaned over to Tonya.

"Oh yeah? Then do it. I dare you!" Tonya shouted back. _Obviously, he forgot what my powers are._ She smirked.

"Alright!" Sam shouted as she stood up above the two. "Either you two quit it right now or I'll make both of you shut up." She glared daggers at both of them. "Got it!" Noah turned away from Tonya and went back to his work, and Tonya stopped smacking her gum. "Thank you." She sighed in relief.

"Surprise, surprise, Miss Wilder taking control of things… again." A female voice said with an Australian accent.

Sam, Tonya, and Noah all looked behind them to see a young girl, who looked no older then sixteen, who had crimped dark brown hair, with red highlights, and brown eyes. She was dressed in a black mini skirt, a black cropped top, and boots. She had her feet up on the library table and they were crossed.

"Who's that?" Tonya leaned over to Noah and whispered.

"Lyndsey Tyler. Also known as Caution."

"Ah." Tonya looked away. _Oh like that helps me_

"Her powers are to become a werewolf." He whispered back.

"Oh." Tonya shrugged. _Now that actually does help me._

Sam's brown eyes narrowed on the girl, "Lyndsey… I should have guessed." The girl, Lyndsey, smirked at Sam's comment. "Don't you have a moon to howl at or something?" Sam said coldly.

"Oh real cute **Samantha**," Lyndsey rolled her brown eyes at Sam, "make a werewolf comment… Real original."

Sam gritted her teeth when Lyndsey said her full name. "What do you want Lyndsey?"

"Nothing." Lyndsey shrugged as she picked the dirt out from underneath her fingernails.

"Then leave." Sam glared. "We're trying to do schoolwork. You know? That stuff you never do."

"Oh good comeback." Lyndsey said sarcastically.

"Whatever." Sam said as she turned back around.

"Watch out ladies and gentlemen. Samantha Wilder is on a roll." Lyndsey mocked.

Sam rolled her eyes and continued to work. _Just ignore her. She wants to get a rise out of me._ Sam kept reminding herself.

"Just like you had enough control to prevent Ghost from dying." Lyndsey smirked, and Sam stopped working and her eyes went wide. "Oh wait. You didn't."

Sam quickly pushed her chair back and stood up, "SCREW YOU!" She screamed as her brown eyes flashed yellow.

Both Tonya and Noah jumped out of their chairs and grabbed each of Sam's wrists. "Sam calm down." Noah tried to say to calm Sam down, but it was pointless.

Lyndsey smirked at Sam's reaction. "Hint a nerve Samantha?"

"SCREW YOU! COME HERE!" Sam shouted as she pulled against Tonya and Noah's grip to get closer to Lyndsey. "Let go of me!" She glared at Noah and Tonya. "Let me at her!"

Lyndsey took her feet off the table, gathered her things, and slowly walked out of the library waving to Sam above her head. "See you around Samantha." She said before leaving the library.

Once Lyndsey was out of the library, Noah and Tonya slowly let go of Sam's wrist. She snapped her wrist back to her and glared at them both, "What the hell is your problems!" She shouted at them.

"Sam you can't overreact…" Tonya sighed.

"Overreact? Overreact!" Sam shouted as she glared at Tonya.

"Sam, Tonya didn't mean it like that." Noah sighed.

"Whatever!" Sam shouted as she gathered up her belongings and stormed out of the library.

Tonya and Noah watched in silence as Sam stormed out and once she was gone, Tonya turned to Noah, "What was that all about?"

"Ghost. It's a really touchy subject for Sam." He sighed as he stared at the door where Sam left. "Just don't ask." He sighed as he gathered his things. "We'll work on the project later, alright?"

"Right." Tonya nodded, and then Noah walked out of the library. _Ghost?_ She packed up her things, but she accidentally knocked her pen on the grounds. She bent down and picked it up, but she noticed a videotape on the ground where Lyndsey was sitting. She glanced around the library as she slowly picked it up to see if anyone noticed her taking it. _What the?_ She slipped the videotape into her bag and quickly left the library, without looking behind her.


	17. New Codename For An Old Face

**A New Age, A New Team**

Chapter 16: New Codename For An Old Face

"Saria Williams… Access granted." The same metallic voice echoed down the long hallway, while Saria sat there at the large metal doors with the X on them and a briefcase in hand. The large doors slowly began to open and Saria walked straight through them as if she was in a hurry.

"Oh Jamal!" She shouted loudly in a sort of singsong voice. "I'm baaaaack." She smirked as she set her briefcase down on a metal table with a rather loud thud. "And I come with good news." She chuckled as she unclasped the latches on the side of the briefcase before flipping the lid open to reveal the gun that Jamal had given her before.

Jamal walked out from behind a machine wiping her greasy hands on an old rag, "I hope it's about the gun…"

"Oh it is, it is." Saria said with a large smile on her face.

"Well? How'd she handle?" Jamal asked curiously as he looked into Saria's brown eyes and then down at the gun in the case.

"Beautifully. You're a genius." Saria raved. "It's perfection."

_So I've been told._ Jamal smirked. "Why thank you." Jamal nodded his head once to Saria.

"But that ain't why I'm here." Saria said with a serious tone in her voice.

"What's wrong?" Jamal asked as he too became serious.

"When I was lookin' 'round on the database a couple weeks ago, I saw a mutant. Jinx or somethin' like that–"

"Linx." Jamal corrected.

"Right!" Saria gasped. "Linx… Anyway, her power. Can she really control the livin' and the dead?" Saria whispered. _Alex…_

"And Limbo." Jamal added, "Why?"

"Can ya take me to her?"

"Give me a few moments and I can locate her and then–"

"Jamal, just do it. Don't tell me 'bout it." Saria laughed lightly.

Jamal chuckled, "Fine." He turned around, walked over to his large computer, and sat down in the car before beginning to type furiously on the keyboard. A series of windows popped up on the screen, and as they popped up, Saria's brown eyes with gold in them followed from screen to screen.

"What are you doing?" Saria asked in a slight daze from the screen.

"I'm bringing up the surveillance system so I can search the mansion for her." Jamal said to Saria without even looking away from the monitor screen.

"Oh."

Different visions from around the mansion popped up left and right on the monitor. Saria saw different people walking around the many places in the mansion until Jamal stopped on the surveillance camera in the living room. "Found her." Jamal whispered.

Saria leaned closer to the monitor as she saw a young girl with short black hair, which had a few red highlights on the bottom, who was busy reading a large book on the couch. "That's her?" Saria said skeptically.

"That's our Linx." Jamal chuckled as he turned around in his chair to look at Saria, but when he turned around, she was already out the door. "Um, alright. Bye." Jamal rolled his eyes and then typed a few more codes into the computer and different cameras came on so that Jamal could follow Saria through the mansion.

Saria ran as fast as she could through the mansion towards the large living room where Linx was. _Please. Please don't let this be a joke…_ She thought desperately until she got to the living room. She paused in the doorway and stared at the back of Linx's head, "Linx?" She asked softly.

Linx looked over her shoulder and her two different colored eyes looked at the Latina girl standing in the living room doorway. "Switch…" Linx nodded as she turned back to her book, placed the bookmark in it, closed her book, and then turned her attention back to Saria.

Saria took a deep breath in and then stepped into the living room, "Yeah… I'm gonna be blunt with ya. I heard 'bout ya power," she said as she rounded around the couch to stand in front of Linx, who was sitting on the couch still, "and I want ya to use it on me, or whateva it ya do." She sighed and waited.

Linx took in the information and slowly stood up in front of Saria. "So you're saying that you want me to take you to Limbo or the dead realm?" Linx asked a little worried.

"I got someone there." Saria said in a pleading voice.

"Oh," Linx nodded in an understanding way, "You want to see someone in Limbo."

"Yeah, whateva it is… Can ya do it?" Saria asked a little annoyed.

Linx nodded, "Yes." Linx sat back down on the couch, signaled Saria to sit down also, and then closed her two different colored hazel eyes and spoke softly. "Close your eyes and relax." Saria looked around the living room a little worried and then nodded her head before sitting down next to Linx. Her brown eyes slowly closed and she let her shoulders fall limp. "Think about who you're trying to find." Linx whispered.

_I'm__ comin' Alex…_

Saria was transported to a world of black and ever shade of grey. The crimson red sky was filled with black clouds and the cracked ground of ash seemed to spread for miles. She looked around and saw the occasional random trees, which had no leaves and the branches struck out in all directions that looked as if it was burnt but had managed to survive. She was in Limbo.

She looked to her left and saw a cloaked figure standing next to her, and while the figure did scare her, she showed no sign of fear. "Relax Saria," a voice said calmly and the figure pushed back the cloak hood to reveal it was Linx. "It's me."

"Where are we?" Saria asked softly as she looked around. People were shuffling their feet as the walked with their heads down, which made them look like zombies.

"Limbo." Linx said calmly as she looked around. "You're looking for the one named Alex Williams, correct?"

One of the zombies lifted their head and let out a scream that sent a chill through Saria's body as she felt the zombie's pain. "Yeah." She said absentmindedly, as she looked at the zombie's face in horror. Their face was filled with sadness and fear. Their eyes were bloodshot and their bodies were shades of grey and black, as if they had no souls to grant them color.

Linx held her staff in her hand as she slowly looked around Limbo to see if her two different colored hazel eyes could find Alex. "There." She said softly as she used her staff's head to point at the young man walking around just like the other zombies.

"Alex…" Saria whispered as her brown eyes filled with tears. Without hesitation, Saria took off running as fast as she could towards Alex. Linx slowly walked towards Saria and Alex without in hurry in her pace.

Saria dropped to her knees in front of her little brother, "Alex." She said happily.

It had been seven years since she had seen Alex. It had been seven years since her had been murdered right in front of Saria's eyes. Every night that she had fallen asleep, she had prayed that she would get to see him again. Every night she vowed revenge. However, now… Now she had him.

Alex slowly raised his head up to the crimson red sky and let out a heart-wrenching scream. His young eyes were bloodshot and filled with fear and sadness. His skin was cold to the touch and a shade of lifeless grey.

Saria felt her body scream out for her little brother, "Make 'im stop." She pleaded as she held onto Alex's shoulders and felt the chill of his skin. Her brown eyes looked up at Linx and she screamed, "Make 'im stop!" Tears streamed down her face as she looked back at Alex. _Make 'im stop hurtin'. He didn't do nothin'. He's innocent. It's my fault he's here._ "Make it stop…" Saria whispered.

Linx slowly took her staff and lightly tapped Alex's shoulder, and as soon as the edge of her staff touched the young boy, his skin filled with color once again. His once bloodshot eyes, returned to their normal brown. "Saria…" Alex gasped as he fell into Saria's arms.

"Alex." Saria gasped loudly as she pulled Alex into her arms. She felt the warmth of his skin once again, his breath against her shoulder, his arms around her. She felt everything she had been wishing for, for seven years. She felt it all. "Oh Alex. I'm so sorry." She whispered as she nuzzled her face into his shoulder.

"Sissy, no." Alex whispered. His semi-long brown hair shook from side-to-side as he shook his head. "Listen to me…" Alex said as he pulled away from Saria's arms. "Ya're powers to twist reality are a gift. Ya will be great one day. Ya will protect the world."

"What are ya talkin' 'bout Alex?" Saria asked in confusion.

"There are different types of mutants. There are the angels, the deaths," he said as he glanced at Linx, "and then there are mutants like ya: the twistas."

"What are ya talkin' 'bout?" Saria asked in annoyance and confusion.

"Ya a Twista." Alex said as he put his hand on her cheek softly. "So be what ya are…"

"What?" Saria gasped. _I'm__ Twista._

A loud screeched sounded over Limbo, and in an instant both Linx and Saris were pulled out of Limbo and back into reality. Linx looked up and around the ceiling in fear. _Something's__ wrong._ Linx thought as she stood up. An alarm was sounding over the entire mansion.

"W-W-What happened!" Saria shouted in anger as she stood up also.

"There's something wrong." Linx whispered as she looked around.

"Who cares. Take me back… Now!" Saria shouted.

"I can't," Linx sighed, "I need silence and concentration to go."

"Damnit!" Saria shouted as she stormed out of the living room and then the mansion. _Alex…_

Linx watched Saria storm out and then looked at the ceiling. "All X² members report to the briefing room." Cerebro said over the intercom throughout the mansion. Linx nodded and slowly walked out of the living room towards the briefing room to meet everyone else and to find out why an alarm was sounded.


	18. Training Or Abuse

**A New Age, A New Team**

Chapter 17: Training Or Abuse

Sam sat up in her room pacing back and forth. "How dare her." She huffed as she picked up a pillow and threw it as hard as she could at her wall, but she missed and hit a picture frame. It wobbled back and forth before falling on the ground and the glass shattering. "Damnit!" She shouted as she stormed over to the picture and bent down.

She paused from picking it up for a moment when she looked at the picture. It was Sam and her two brothers, Adam and James. She was twelve years old, James was twenty-one, and Adam was twenty-seven. She slowly reached underneath the shards of glass, picked up the broken picture frame, and stared at how happy they all were. She sat down on her bed and closed her eyes as she remembered the joy of being with her brothers.

Sam could feel her anger boil inside of her as she remembered James' arms wrapped around Sam's small body as she tried desperately to reach out to Adam as the rival gang member held the gun to his head. His finger curled around the trigger of the gun and a tear streamed down Adam's face…

**Knock Knock**

Sam's body jumped as she looked at her door.

"Sam?" Noah asked through the door. "I was just coming to tell you that Hell's Angel, Satine, and Frostbite are waiting in the Danger Room for you to train. You scheduled them today."

The door to Sam's room flung open and Sam stood there, "Fine." She huffed as she slipped passed Noah and went down the hallway.

Noah watched Sam disappear down the hallway and then once she was out of sight he turned and looked into her room. He noticed the broken glass on the side of her bed and he looked down the hallway before going into her bedroom. He slowly bent down to the glass, picked up each piece, and placed it into her trashcan before picked up the frame. He set the frame down on her bed and noticed the picture that once lay inside of it.

_Oh no._ Noah thought. _It's__ Sam and her brothers – poor Satine, Hell's Angel, and Frostbite. She is just going to beat them to a pulp._ He sighed in frustration.

Sam walked into the danger room, which had no simulation on and Satine, Hell's Angel, and Frostbite were standing around inside of it waiting for Sam to arrive. "Today is going to be a hard day of training." Sam said coldly as she walked passed all of them and went straight up to the simulation room to pick a program to train them under.

"When isn't training hard with her?" Seth (Frostbite) joked to the two girls, but only Jazmine (Hell's Angel) laughed.

"She's hurting." Aurora (Satine) said absentmindedly in her thick Irish accent, as her green eyes stared up at Sam in the tower.

"What?" Seth asked in disbelief.

"Rora?" Jazmine asked as she stepped forward.

"How does she know that?" Seth asked softly to Jazmine, while looking at Aurora, who was staring up at Sam.

"Aurora is a telepath and an empath."

"Oh." Seth sighed. "So Aurora," he asked as he walked over to her, "what's Sam thinking about?"

Aurora's green eyes flickered over Sam and then she sighed, "I don't know. Her thoughts are very clouded."

"Then read her emotions." Jazmine stepped in.

"I have," Aurora pleaded as she looked away from Sam and at Seth and Jazmine. "All I sense is anger and pain."

"I could have told you the anger part." Seth smirked.

"But the anger is because she's in pain." Aurora sighed. "She's in a lot of it."

"That can't be good for us then." Seth said as he glanced up at Sam.

"No. It can't." Jazmine sighed.

Sam didn't pay any attention to what the trio was talking about below her as she typed a few things into the computer and then a warehouse simulation appeared around the three mutants below. "Here's how we're going to run this simulation. You won't know who you're opponent is, but there will be one so find it. You have to fight for your lives basically."

"Um, Sam?" Seth asked, "We've never run a simulation where our lives are at risk…" Seth glanced at Jazmine (Hell's Angel) and Aurora (Satine) before looking back up at the tower where Sam was posted.

"Your lives aren't truly at risk, Seth. It simulated to be that way though." Sam said roughly.

"We still have never run a simulation where are lives are **simulated** to be at risk." Seth pointed out.

"Well it's about time we id run that kind of simulation. You three haven't been here quite as long as the rest of us have been, but you've been here long enough for us to step up your training so you'll be able to make decisions on your own that will help the team without your leaders telling you what to do." Sam said harshly. "So get ready." Hell's Angel, Satine, and Frostbite got into position as they waited for Sam to begin the simulation. "Begin." Sam said over the intercom system, and the simulation started.

A large silver harpoon shot out of nowhere towards Satine, and Satine before Satine had any time to react to it, Frostbite tackled Satine to the ground. "Watch yourself darlin'." He smirked down at Satine, who blushed.

Hell's Angel stretched her large black wings out and in one powerful flap of them, she was up in the air. "I'll cover the aerial view point." She shouted down to Frostbite, who was helping Satine off the ground.

"Got it." Frostbite yelled back to her, and then turned to Satine. "You alright by yourself?"

"Yeah, I think so." She nodded softly. The ground shook below them and then Frostbite looked above them as a crate from the warehouse flew towards him and Satine.

A burst of flames shot out across the crate and it caught fire quickly. "What the hell?" Frostbite gasped before looking at Hell's Angel, who had smoke coming from her mouth. "Oh thanks." He nodded to Hell's Angel before looking at Satine. "Use your powers to find the power source of our "opponent", alright?" He said softly.

"You need to watch yourself better, and do less talking." Sam said over the intercom.

Frostbite turned around and froze a thing of bullets fired off at him and Satine. "Why don't you get down here and try this before you criticize us for "talking too much", huh?" He shouted out of breath as he continued to cover himself and Satine, while Hell's Angel did the aerial view. _You're__ up there barking out orders to us to "do better" when you're the one doing nothing but riding our asses._

"Because I've done a lot harder simulations than any of you have." Sam said angrily over the intercom. "This is the easy shit to me, thank you very much. You wanna see what I do? Fine."

Sam put her fingers on the keyboard and was about to type in the code to run the simulations that her, Noah, Grace, and Sean have to run on a regular bases, but the doors to the danger room opened and Noah walked in. "Override system. End simulations Password Clutch." He shouted out and as soon as he finished speaking, the Danger Room returned to normal.

Seth was panting as he had one arm around Aurora's waist so that he could keep her close to his body so that he could protect her, while Hell's Angel softly flapped her black wings while she panted in the air. Slowly Hell's Angel lowered herself to the ground near Seth and Aurora, "You two alright?" She whispered softly as she panted.

They both nodded slowly as they looked over at the tower door as Sam stormed out of it. "What the hell is your problem Noah!" Sam shouted as she came out of the tower and started walking towards Noah.

_Oh here we go._ Noah thought, "Sam you were about to run the hardest simulation the danger room has for them."

"He was acting like it was easy."

"So? That doesn't mean you run something that could kill them!" He shouted. "You're pissed and you're taking it out of them… Stop it!"

"What I choose to do during my training sessions is my business. Not yours."

"When it involves something like this? It becomes my business." Noah shouted as he glanced at Aurora. _Leave now while I'm distracting her. I'll take the blame, just go before she tries to get you guys to train some more._ He thought to her.

Aurora received the telepathic message and looked at Jazmine and Seth, "Noah just told me that we should leave while we have the chance." She whispered to them.

"Right, no arguing here." Seth smirked.

They all quietly walked out of the Danger Room to leave Sam and Noah arguing with one another. _Thank goodness._ Noah thought.

"You are not in charge of my training sessions." Sam shouted.

Noah turned his attention back towards Sam. _Great now I have to deal with her…_ "You keep acting like that and I will be."


	19. Stolen Betrayal

**Author's Note:** Hey yall I'm sooooooo sorry for taking so long. Lots of drama, sickness, and make-up work in school to get through but here's chapter 18. Enjoy.

**A New Age, A New Team**  
Chapter 18: Stolen Betrayal

"So where is this **new guy** you two were telling us about?" Rashad asked Mary-Lynn and Natalie impatiently.

"Patience is a virtue Rashad dear." Mary-Lynn said sweetly; slightly lacing her voice with a hint of pheromones to calm Rashad down.

Rashad gave a heavy sigh, "The meeting was supposed to start," he checked the clock on the wall, "two minutes ago."

"Lighten up Rashad, it's two minutes." Lucas said in his thick Scottish accent, which made Rashad glared at the Scottish boy with his brown eyes.

"He'll be here." Natalie said softly in her English accent, but with confidence.

Everyone on the Chaos team sat in silence around the low rectangular table in the dimly lit living room area of the Chaos base. Mary-Lynn was sitting in her usually large chair with her legs dangling over the side, Rashad, Ashley, Lucas, and Karen were sitting on the couch, and Natalie was sitting in the other chair across from Mary-Lynn. Each person took a moment to look around at everyone else, while Natalie looked over at Mary-Lynn, who was busy filing her nails. _Why is she always so calm?_ Natalie thought in slight annoyance, though she showed no sign of it on the outside.

**KnockKnock**

Everyone in the living room looked over at the door that was down a hallway behind the couch.

"That's him." Mary-Lynn said as she stood up.

"How do you know that it's him?" Karen asked with her voice laced with a French accent.

Mary-Lynn swung her feet around and stood up from the chair, "Because honey, I control pheromones." She said as she rolled her violet eyes and made her way to the door. "I can smell anyone's natural pheromones easily." She said as she opened the door to Orion standing in front of her. "See?"

Orion looked down at the little southern bell raised an eyebrow at her, "Am I missing something?" He asked in his Italian accent.

"No suga, come in." Mary-Lynn ushered Orion inside and shut the door behind him. She walked down the hallway in front of Orion and when she entered the large living room where the rest of the team was, she stopped. "Yall, this is Orion Paradox, also known as Sparks." She introduced.

"Hello." Orion nodded his head once.

"You're late." Rashad snapped.

"I'm sorry?" Orion said more of a question than an apology. _What the hell?__ You hired me, therefore I arrive when I arrive._ He sighed.

"Whatever." Rashad snarled as he turned back around to face the rectangular table in front of him.

"Sorry about Rashad." Mary-Lynn whispered in her southern bell accent to Orion, "Unfortunately, he's naturally that cranky." She sighed as she flopped back down in her chair.

"Alright here's the deal," Rashad started as he pulled out a large rolled piece of paper out from underneath the table, "we're wanting to pull off a heist," he spoke as he unrolled the large piece of paper out across the rectangular table, "here."

Orion's yellow eyes looked over the large piece of paper, which turned out to be a blueprint, and saw the name in the corner. "The Technology Center?" He asked.

Rashad looked up at him for a moment and then looked back at the blueprint, "Yeah. We're wanting to steal some technology for it."

"No really?" Lucas said sarcastically, which made Rashad glare daggers over at him.

Karen placed her hand softly on Lucas' knee and looked into his brown eyes, with gold flecks, with her blue eyes and she slowly shook her head. _Stop it Lucas. He's not in the mood._ She thought, though there was no way for Lucas to hear her thoughts, but Lucas seemed to understand anyway.

"How are you going to get it out of there without tripping the alarms?" Orion asked, which made Rashad slowly looked up at him in annoyance.

"I was getting to that," he said dryly.

"Sorry." Orion said sheepishly.

"Anyway," Rashad continued, "every night there are two guards posted outside of the center." Rashad took two small toy soldiers and placed them in front of the center doors. "Mary-Lynn this is where you come in."

"Say no more honey." Mary-Lynn waved it off.

"Good. Karen I want you to stay with the van as our get away car."

"Ah," Karen slightly whined, "why do I not get to go in with you guys?"

"Because if one of the guys stays with the van and someone sees them they will probably suspect something is up, but if an attractive lady like yourself is with the van they might not think that as easily." Rashad said with a sneaky smile.

"Ah, I see." Karen nodded a couple times. "Very good then."

"Good." Rashad sighed and then turned to Natalie, "Natalie I want you to stay outside with Mary-Lynn and watch her back why the rest of us move on." Natalie nodded her head once. "Once that's taken care of we'll be ready to go inside." Rashad paused, "Mary-Lynn you have to knock them out and get back to us as soon as possible."

"Can't stand to be away from me too long, huh?" She smirked, though Rashad just glared. "Oh fine, I'll just over exert their adrenaline and they'll be out like a light in no time."

"Good. Natalie you need to stay outside in case someone comes, and if someone does create a distraction so we can get out of there."

"No problem." Natalie nodded.

"Before we get inside I need you Lucas to short-circuit the security cameras inside."

"Alright." Lucas smirked. "But in order to do that I have to stay where I am because as soon as I remove my hand from the wall, the cameras go back to normal."

"You're joking right?" Rashad gasped.

"Afraid not." Lucas sighed.

"Alright fine," Rashad looked up at Orion, "what's your power?"

"I can make things explode with a single thought."

Rashad smirked devilishly and looked at Lucas, "That's perfect then. You short-circuit the security cameras and stay where you are… So that leaves me with Orion, Mary-Lynn, Ashley, and myself. Alright." Rashad nodded to himself. "Once that's through, we can move inside." Rashad moved the blueprints a little closer to himself in order to get a better view, "We're on a tight schedule here and we don't have any rooms for screw ups, alright?"

Everyone nodded, while Orion looked around at everyone. _Obviously, he's the leader, and he's not a bad one._

"There's a security system room in a secret room," he pointed to a wall, "Mary-Lynn, if the security guards haven't come out of there already, there's a painting on the wall. Move it to the side, the code to the lock is 4–"

"Um, Rashad darlin'?" Mary-Lynn interrupted. "Why don't I just send some pheromones through the door and have them open up for me?" She chuckled.

"That works to." Rashad smirked. "I need you to knock them out also, and when that's done, Natalie you can come inside and don't forget to bring those two guards in with you."

"Um, problem." Mary-Lynn said bluntly.

"What now?" Rashad sighed.

"How many are in there?"

"Probably six, why?"

"I can't leave then. If I'm keeping those two outside being brought inside plus those six, that's eight guys unconscious. I can't leave unless you want them wakin' up." She sighed.

"Fine. Natalie once you got those two guards inside the security system room with Mary-Lynn, I want you to stay with her, and turn off the security system. Once that's done, Lucas you can come in then, and then Ashley I want you to stay with the girls so that we have a more offensive power protecting them... No offense girls."

"None taken." Mary-Lynn and Natalie said with slight annoyance in their voices.

"That leaves me Lucas and Orion. Alright." He sighed, "Once that's taken care of the four of us need to head to the basement." He pointed to a small staircase to the right, "That's where they lock all their most prized inventions." Rashad smirked devilishly at Lucas and Orion. "I want the three of you in the security system room following us to make sure we're alright and keeping a look out for anyone we haven't expected." Rashad looked right at Natalie and Ashley when he spoke. _I'm__ mostly counting on you two because Mary-Lynn isn't quite the most reliable person in the world…_

Rashad reached under the rectangular table once again and pulled out another blueprint. "This is the basement," he said as he unrolled the new blueprint. "Once the security system is turned off, we can do whatever we please as long as it isn't too much." He smirked. "There's about a foot thick steal door with a code on it to get to the technology." He pointed at the wall on the blueprint.

"Wanting me to short-circuit that too?" Lucas smirked.

"Not this time." Rashad sighed. "The vault door runs on a security system directly linked to the police station." He paused. "Doing that could trigger the alarm."

"So what does that mean?" Karen asked in confusion.

"It means we have to manually crack the code to open the door, or we get nothing." He sighed.

"Rashad none of us are **that** technologically advanced enough to crack vault doors." Ashley said in disappointment.

"Who said?" Rashad asked. "My brother Jamal is a genius at technology, and it ain't like I didn't learn a thing or two from him." He smirked. "I'll crack the code. It should be easy. I've been working on it for awhile now, and I just need the last two digits which I'll have by tomorrow morning so no problems." Rashad waved it off. "So moving on, once the code is cracked I want the three of you in the security system room coming down to the basement immediately, and then Karen I want you bringing the van around to the side." Rashad paused for a moment to look around at everyone. "Now here's where it gets fun." He chuckled.

Mary-Lynn stopped filing her nails and looked up at Rashad. _He very rarely laughs._ Mary-Lynn thought because she was slightly worried by Rashad's chuckle.

"Orion I want you to blast a hole in this wall, and from there everyone just picks up whatever they please and puts it in the van." He smirked.

Everyone in Chaos looked around at each other with smiles. Destroying things was more their style if anything.

"Genius Rashad." Karen said softly as she looked over at Rashad.

A small hooded figure walked down a foggy dusty road towards the front gates to the mansion, but paused just outside of the gates. Small hands rose up to the edge of the hood and pushed it back to reveal Natalie standing in front of the gates. _Where is she?_ She sighed though on the outside she showed no sighed of hurry. _I hate being near this place, especially by myself._

"Nervous?" A cool, calm female Australian voice asked as a teenage girl appeared on the side of the gate closest to the mansion.

"No."

"Don't lie. I can smell it on you." The teenage girl chuckled. "Remember? Heighten senses." She smirked as she came into view.

"Are you ready to do busy Lyndsey?" Natalie asked in slight annoyance.

"Of course." Lyndsey smirked.

"I heard that you were possibly thinking about switching sides…" Natalie's voice trailed off as a devilish smirk grew on her face.

"Possibly." Lyndsey said coolly.

"What if I told you that you could join Chaos if you wished?" She raised an perfectly shaped eyebrow at Lyndsey.

"I'd ask you what I had to do in return."

"Get inside information on X² that only a member of X² could get." She smirked.

"I don't know." Lyndsey said softly.

"Fine. No information, no spot." Natalie sighed.

"Fine." Lyndsey said quickly, and then gained her posture again, "Consider it done."

"Pleasure doing business with you." Natalie said as she put her hood back over her head.

"Like whys." Lyndsey nodded, as Natalie turned on her heal and slowly walked away; disappearing into the fog.


	20. Choose To Accept

**Author's Note:** I'm a terrible person. I know. However, I finally got off my butt and wrote another chapter. I hope yall enjoy it.**  
**

**A New Age, A New Team**

Chapter 19: Choose To Accept

All of the members of X² were sitting in a large half circle room facing towards the flat side of the room. The half-circular part of the room was setup much like a seminar room or a movie theater. On the first level, there was a large rounded couch, and two sets of stairs on either side of it. On the level behind the large rounded couch, there was another large rounded couch. Al the members of X² were sitting on the couches as they waited to find out why the alarm had gone off.

Dawn leaned over to Aurora, "What's going on?" she whispered.

"This is the briefing room." Aurora whispered back in her Irish accent. "When there's a mission for us to go on or there's trouble, we meet here."

"Do you know why we're here then?"

"No, sorry." Aurora sighed.

Slowly the large wooden door to the room opened and Jamal walked through with a folder in his hand. Everyone quickly got quiet while Jamal stood up at the front of the room, which was the flat side of the room. "I'm happy to know you all responded so quickly." Jamal said very seriously. "As you probably have already guessed, something has happened." Jamal said, as he slowly looked around the room at all the members that were sitting before him.

"So what's wrong?" Tonya asked in annoyance, which made Noah glare at her from across the room. _What Grissom?__ You know you were wondering the same thing._ Tonya thought at Noah even though she knew he couldn't hear her thoughts.

Jamal walked over to the wall where he pulled down a screen and then walked back over to the slide projector. He turned it on and then opened his folder. On the screen was a picture of the police in City Hall looked around the opened file cabinets. "City Hall was broken into a few days ago."

"Why are we just now hearing about this?" Sean asked Jamal in his Australian accent as he reached over to Grace and took her hand in his.

"Because we had to wait until the police cleared out because their number one suspect is any mutants." Jamal explained as he slowly flipped through the different slides.

"When aren't mutants their number one suspects?" Tonya scoffed to herself in her British accent as she rolled her green eyes.

"I have to agree with Sorenson," Noah said slightly in disgust.

"Never thought I'd see the day you agreed with Tonya." Sam rolled her hazel green eyes at Noah before looking back at Jamal's slides.

Noah looked over at Sam and sighed as he looked back at Jamal, "They always think we did it when most of the time it isn't us." He sighed in frustration. "What's so special about this time?"

"Because I suspect it was mutants also." Jamal said firmly, which slightly caught everyone off guard. "This is City Hall. It's not the easiest place to break into, let alone get into the basement where the blueprints are kept."

"Wait… blueprints were stolen?" Grace asked as she slightly leaned forward in concern.

"Yes." Jamal sighed.

"To what?" Sean asked.

"Not sure." Jamal sighed in disappointment. "That's why I need some of you to go check it out."

The large wooden doors slowly opened and Lyndsey slipped inside the room. "Sorry I'm late." She said as she quickly took a seat on the front couch, which was in front of Sam. "What'd I miss?" She asked in her Australian accent.

Sam's hazel green eyes glared daggers at Lyndsey as she sat down, "How are you late?" She asked loudly. "How did you not hear the alarm?"

_Oh no._ Tonya thought. _Here we go again._

Lyndsey turned halfway around to face Sam, "I wasn't here, alright?" She spat.

"Where were you?" Sam quickly asked.

There was an odd silence in the room as Sam and Lyndsey glared at each other as if they might kill each other. "Away." Lyndsey said bluntly before turning around.

"Where?" Sam persisted.

"Sam," Sean interjected, "drop it. She's here now, so just drop it." He sighed as he stared firmly at her.

Sam stared back at Sean for a moment and then sunk back into the cushions of the couch, "Fine." She said softly. _I don't trust her…_

"Anyway," Jamal said before clearing his voice, "I was just explaining that someone broke into City Hall and stole blueprints, Lyndsey." He nodded to her.

"Big deal." Lyndsey shrugged.

"It is a big deal," Jamal said quickly and in slight annoyance. "I suspect it was a mutant or mutants doing."

"Well then…" Lyndsey said sarcastically.

Jamal glared at Lyndsey because of her disrespect towards him, "Anyway," he looked away from her, "I want a small team going to check this out." He paused, "Cerebro has given me orders to send Grace, Sean, and Seth. Cerebro also wants Dawn going in order to get some first hand experience in going on a mission."

"Alright." Sean nodded professionally.

Jamal looked over his notes one more time and then nodded. "That's all I had on my list, so you are all dismissed."

Everyone in the room stood up to make their way out of the meeting room, but Lyndsey rolled her eyes, "That's all we were called in for?"

Sam looked back at Lyndsey to say something but Sean placed a soft hand on her back and ushered her out of the meeting room. _Just leave it alone Sam._ He thought to her as if she could hear him.

"Noah." Sean said calmly to the tall second leader of the X².

"Yes Sean?"

"Will you check up on Sam for me while I'm gone on this mission?"

"Yes sir." Noah nodded.

Sam quickly walked passed everyone and stormed up the stairs of the mansion, up to her room and then slammed her door shut with a loud bang.

Noah and Sean stood at the bottom of the stairs, staring up at where Sam had just stormed up to.

"Good luck." Sean patted Noah's shoulder before turning away to meet Grace for their mission.

Noah sighed as he stared up the stairs. "Thanks… I'm going to need it." He sighed as he started up the stairs.

Sam was sitting in the bay window of her room with her knees bent and close to her chest. The sunlight was shining down upon her and the outside was beautiful, but that wasn't Sam's focus. She was holding something in her lap: a picture.

In between Sam's slender hands was a small black picture frame that held two pictures in it. The picture on the right was a picture of a young boy with platinum blonde hair, which appeared almost the color of white, and where his eyes should have had pigment, they were black. He was smiling happily for the camera. The picture on the left was a newspaper clipping of the obituary of the young boy.

Sam softly ran her fingers over the little boy's face as her eyes fell into a deep trance just staring at the boy.

"Sam?" Noah asked sheepishly as he lightly knocked against the door and walked into her room.

Sam looked up from the picture at Noah and sighed in annoyance. "Yes?" She sighed.

Noah walked a little closer to Sam and noticed the picture of the young boy. _Ghost…_ He thought in sympathy. "I, um, I'm really sorry about Ghost. You know that. And if there's anything I can do just tell–"

"Spare me Grissom." Sam said as she rolled her eyes. "I don't need your sympathy or anyone else's… So I hope that the reason you came in here isn't to give me sympathy but to either talk about our project with Tonya or something about the team." She paused for a moment. "Otherwise you can leave."

Noah opened his mouth to say something but stopped. He slowly closed it and looked down at the ground. He wanted to help her, but Sam wasn't one for help. "I'm sorry to have disturbed you." He said before turning around and walking out of Sam's room; closing the door behind him.

Sam stared at the closed door and then sighed. She slowly turned her head and looked out the sunny bay window down at the other students playing on the ground of the institute. She sighed before looking at her lap at the picture of Ghost.

"I'm sorry…" She whispered as she carefully ran her fingertips over the picture of the boy.


	21. Shadow Warning

**Author's**** Notes:** Sorry I personally don't think this is one of my better chapters, but it's a chapter needed in order to setup the plot. Muahaha! I hope yall enjoy it.

**A New Team, A New Age**  
Chapter 20: Shadow Warning

The sun was beginning to set and that's when the darkest parts of the city decided to come out from hiding. Everything that ever happened happened at night because it was easier and more comfortable for many.

Hecate and Linx walked, confidently, along side one another down the darkening street. They both stopped in their tracks at the same time as they stared in front of them at the warehouse.

"Is this where he wanted to meet us?" Linx asked calmly as her two different colored hazel eyes never looked away from the warehouse.

"This is the place." Hecate said with no emotion.

"Alright." Linx shrugged before beginning to walk towards the warehouse door at the same time as Hecate.

A tall young man dressed in all black with black sunglasses stood in the shadows of the alley across the street from the warehouse where Linx and Hecate were walking. He lowered his sunglasses down a little bit to get a better look at one of the girls; revealing a pair of deep green eyes. His deep green eyes followed the young girl with platinum blonde hair (Hecate) as she disappeared into the building.

Once the two girls had disappeared inside the warehouse, the young man pushed his sunglasses slowly up over his eyes once again.

"Early I see." A voice with a thick French accent said smugly as it walked behind the young man, who turned around.

"Are you Diamond?" He asked in a thick Australian accent.

"Please," Karen paused, "call me Karen, but yet. I am the one they call Diamond, and what is it that I can do for you…?" She trailed her voice off to get a name out of the mysterious young man.

"Arcane Tripidicus. Codename: Shadow Runner." The young man said as he held out his hand.

Karen placed her hand gently in his, "Charmed. Now what is it that you want with me and/or Chaos?" She said bluntly as she flicked her blonde hair with pink tips behind her shoulders.

"My friend told me about Chaos and I want to join." He smirked calmly.

Karen looked him over once and then stared up at the reflection of her in his black sunglasses. "It's not that simple, you know."

"I'd hope it wasn't."

"Good."

Both Hecate and Linx walked confidently side-by-side through the warehouse, until they came to an opening in the middle of it. They both stopped walking and looked around into the shadows.

"I'm glad you two could make it." An Italian voice said seriously.

"Cut the mysterious crap Orion." Hecate sighed in frustration.

Orion walked out of the shadows towards both of the girls. "I'm sorry Hecate, but I can't." He smirked. "It comes naturally."

Hecate rolled her deep blue eyes at the older man. "Why'd you call us to some abandon warehouse?"

Orion paused and took a deep breath in. "Because I wanted to warn you two."

"I said cut the mysterious crap." Hecate sighed in annoyance.

"Warn us about what?" Linx said calmly, but in concern.

"About what's to come."

Hecate looked over at Linx and sighed. _Make him stop talking in riddles._ She thought to herself, though her deep blue eyes spoke her thoughts.

Linx sighed before she looked back at Orion. "What do you mean? What's coming?"

"A fight."

"A fight?" Hecate said aloud.

"Did I stutter?" Orion asked as he looked down at Hecate.

Hecate resisted the urge to yell at him because he seemed to have valuable information.

"A fight between whom?" Linx asked.

"X² and Chaos."

"There's no surprise." Hecate said under her breath.

"What's so bad about that?" Linx chuckled. "We do that a lot."

"This one is going to be different." Orion said in a pleading voice. "Please, just don't go to the next fight against Chaos."

"Why?" Linx said softly.

"Just please. Don't go." Orion pleaded.

"Why shouldn't we?" Hecate snapped. "We're both valuable members of X² and we can't just not go because you don't want us to."

Orion looked up at the ceiling and around the building before looking back down at the two girls. "Please. Trust me. Don't go." He sighed. "I can't exactly tell you why though."

"Well then we're going." Hecate said in retort.

"No!" Orion shouted, which caught both Hecate and Linx off guard. "Please. I can't explain anymore than that because you need to leave. There's already too many mutants in the area and the Sentinels will be coming soon so you must leave."

Hecate glanced out of the corners of her deep blue eyes into the shadows and then looked at Linx. "He's probably right." She said softly.

Linx nodded her head to Hecate and then turned back to Orion. "Can't you just tell us real quick?"

Orion sighed as he looked down at the young girl with two different colored hazel eyes. "No, I'm sorry. Just promise me that you won't go." He pleaded.

Linx sighed as she looked into Orion's pleading yellow eyes, and then looked over at Hecate. _He knows something, and I think we should do as he says._

Hecate sighed in defeat and then lazily turned her head to look at Orion. "We promise."

Orion's shoulders suck down in relief. "Thank you." He nodded sincerely.

Linx smiled softly at both Orion and Hecate, before Hecate spoke, "Come on. We need to leave before the Sentinels decided to show."

Linx nodded to Hecate and then looked at Orion, "Thank you for the warning."

"Anything to protect two beautiful ladies." He smiled softly at her. Linx shook her head as she quickly followed behind Hecate out of the warehouse.

Karen turned on her heel and began to walk through the alleyway, while Arcane saw movement from inside the warehouse. He glanced over his shoulder just as the two girls were leaving the warehouse.

"Well are you coming?" Karen said in a snappy tone of voice.

Arcane quickly turned back around to face Karen, who was a few feet down into the alleyway. "Yeah I'm coming." He said calmly as he slowly walked towards her.

"So the deal is that we go back to the Chaos headquarters and let the other members decided upon you, no?"

Arcane stopped in front of the young French girl and nodded. "That's our deal."

"Good." Karen nodded. "Now I'm assuming that since your codename is Shadow Runner, your power has something to do with the shadows, am I correct?"

Arcane smirked as he wrapped on arm around Karen's waist. "How about I show you?" He said with a smirk before closing his eyes from behind the dark black sunglasses. He cleared his mind of all thoughts and in moments, Karen and he had melted into the shadow on the alley floor beneath them and disappeared.


	22. So Many Secrets Unlocked

**Author's Note:** I'm terrible. The summer bug bit me, and bit me hard but I'm terribly sorry for this chapter taking so long. I hope yall enjoy and review it…

**A New Team, A New Age**  
Chapter 21: So Many Secrets Unlocked

**Click**** Click**

"Ladies first." Sean said as he held the small window to the basement opened.

Grace laid down on the ground and carefully slid herself through the little window. She landed on the floor of the basement with ease before turning around to look up at Sean, "Alls clear." She said quietly, "Send Dawn down."

"You heard her," Sean said with a reassuring smile as his blue eyes sparkled at Dawn, "Down you go."

Dawn looked up at Seth unsure, but once Seth gave her a reassuring nod, she slowly walked towards the window. She followed what Grace did by laying down on the ground and slowly sliding herself through the window.

Grace gently put her hands on Dawn's sides to guide her through the window, "Don't worry Dawn, I got you." She reassured the younger girl, who fell into Grace's arms, "See? Nothing to it." She chuckled softly as she looked down at the younger girl.

Moment later, Seth slid through the window, followed by Sean. "Alright," Sean started as he looked around the dark room, "let's make this a quick, in-and-out sort of job." He said as he turned on his flashlight along with the others.

"Look for anything that's out of the ordinary," Grace added as she slid on her black leather gloves. "Leave no finger prints." She reminded everyone.

Sean leaned over to Dawn as he handed her a pair of leather gloves. "This is so that the police don't know we were here." He chuckled as he finished sliding his gloves on.

"Right." Dawn said absentmindedly.

Quietly everyone walked around the dark room guided by the beams from their flashlights as they looked around. Each person went off to a different corner of the room to investigate further, except for Dawn. She stood in the middle of the dark room with her flashlight pointed absentmindedly at a cabinet as she watched everyone else work. _What am I doing here? I don't know what the hell I'm doing…_ She thought as her brown eyes looked around at everyone; Seth was busy looking under a few of the shuffled papers on one of the desks, Sean was checking the drawers of another desk, and Grace was looking on the floors under a table.

Sean turned around and looked at Dawn and the puzzled look on her face. He slowly walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder, "The first time is always the scariest." He smiled softly at her. "I remember my first time, I didn't even want to go into the building and I ended up being forced through the window." He chuckled.

Dawn let out a small snicker at how fearful Sean was his first time. "You big scaredy cat." She teased.

"I know, I know," He sighed, "But now look at me." He stood proudly as he puffed out his chest to look stronger.

_Alright__ so even the leader was scared at one point…_ Dawn reassured herself as she started to walk away from Sean to do some of her own investigation, or at least look like she was.

"Wait." Grace whispered loudly. "Dawn put your flashlight back where you had it. I think you had something…" She demanded as she pointed to the now dark cabinet. Seth and Sean turned around at the same time and looked over at the dark cabinet in silence waiting to see what was found by the combination of the two girls efforts.

"Here?" Dawn asked as she shined her beam of light onto the old tan-colored metal cabinet that was slightly open.

"Yeah. Perfect." Grace said happily even though she didn't look at Dawn.

Grace quietly crouched down to the bottom drawer of the cabinet and carefully untied the police ribbon away from the cabinet. She softly set it on the ground near the cabinet and slowly pulled open the drawer. Inside the drawer there were a couple different rolled up blueprints, which were rubber banded to keep them rolled, "Jackpot." Grace exclaimed softly.

Sean crouched down next to Grace, while Dawn and Seth stood over the two and watched from behind. "Obviously this is where the mutants stole the blueprints from."

"Thanks captain obvious." Seth chuckled.

Sean rolled his eyes and stood up. "Grace I need a bobby pin." He softly asked as Grace pulled one out of her hair and handed it up to Sean, who quickly picked the locks on the other three drawers. "These other drawers are files. The bottom drawer is the only blueprint drawer." He said softly as he handed Grace her bobby pin back.

Grace looked over the now out of shape booby pin with her green eyes and then looked up at Sean, though Sean didn't notice. _Oh like I can use this now._ She thought sarcastically as she put the bobby pin in her pocket and returned to the blueprints. "They're blueprints of the most important building in the city." Grace said as she unrolled different blueprints and looked them over.

"So, um, how do we know which one was taken?" Dawn asked sheepishly.

Sean pulled out another file in one of the drawers and looked it over, "That's what I'm hoping to find out with looking through the files."

Grace and looked through some of the other files. "Well I think there's an easier way to do that then looking through those files…"

"How?" Seth asked as he crouched down next to Grace.

"Simple." Grace smirked. "Every criminal always leaves a form of evidence at the scene of the crime, or at least when they're sloppy they do."

"Your point?" Dawn asked in confusion.

"This." Grace smiled as she picked something up off the bottom of the drawer and help up something into the light of Dawn's flashlight: a diamond.

"That's a diamond." Dawn said in even more confusion. "But how – why is a diamond in a blueprints drawer?"

"Chaos." Seth said absentmindedly as he looked at it.

"What?" Sean asked.

"Chaos. They have a member named Diamond on their team." He said as he came out of his trance on the diamond. "Grace can I see that bobby pin that Sean used?"

"Sure." Grace said as she reached in her pocket and handed it over to Seth.

He carefully stuck the bobby pin in the keyhole of the blueprints drawer and slid it out and as he did, little shards of diamonds fell into his awaiting hand. "She used it to pick the lock…"

Tonya walked down the hallway in her jeans, t-shirt and combat boots with her black dreadlocks pulled back into a thick ponytail. Her boots made a lightly clunky sound as she walked across the tiled floors towards the living room in search of Gabe. _Where the hell__ did he disappear to?_ She sighed in frustration as she rounded the last hallway to get to the living room.

She made her way down the hallway and her expression lightened up when she her the southern accent of Gabe's voice. _Found ya._ She thought gingerly as she turned to the doorway into the living to find Gabe sitting on the couch… With Jazmine.

_Great…_ Tonya thought in annoyance. _No way I'm going to sit here and watch that twit drool over Gabe._ She thought in her British accent as she turned on her heel and began to walk away, but as soon as she had turned around, she was quickly halted as she ran into a small figure.

Tonya stumbled backwards a couple steps with a soft 'umph' before looking up and seeing the older girl named Aurora (Satine) on the ground. Aurora's soft red curls laid across the white tile of the mansion floors and after a few moments she opened her green eyes to look up at Tonya. "Sorry, I didn't see you there." She said softly in her Irish accent.

As soon as Jazmine and Gabe heard the soft commotion out in the hallway, they both quit talking and looked over the back of the couch at Tonya and Aurora. Tonya stood towering over the frail Aurora, who was still on the floor. Gabe looked over at Jazmine with his ice blue eyes before looking back at Aurora and Tonya. _Here we go…_ He thought in his southern accent.

"Whatever." Tonya rolled her green eyes in annoyance before storming off in the opposite direction from which Aurora had come from.

Gabe softly shook his head Tonya and her reaction as Jazmine rolled her eyes in annoyance, before they both looked back at Aurora, who was slowly getting off the floor. The frail redhead shyly looked over at Gabe and when her green eyes met his ice blue eyes a soft tint of blush spread over her pale cheeks, before she looked down at the ground as she walked out of his view.

"Well that was interesting." Jazmine chuckled sarcastically before turning back around to face forward in the couch.

"To say the least." Gabe sighed as he turned around on the couch also.

"GOD could she drool anymore over him!" Tonya said loudly in her British accent as she slammed her dorm room door shut behind her. She roughly turned the key in the door and sighed in relief when she heard the lock of the door lock. She sat down on the edge of her bed with a loud, annoyed sigh.

She leaned her elbows against her knees and held her head in her hands as she tried to calm the adrenaline that was pulsating throughout her body. She took a deep breath in and then as she released it she raised her head up to look at the TV that was in the corner of her room collecting dust. However, when she raised her head that wasn't what caught her green eyes attention. The video tape that had fallen out of Lyndsey's bag earlier was sitting on top of the television.

Suddenly, a calm feeling washed over Tonya's body as she stared at the blank video tape on top of the television in a trance. _Why does she have a video tape? And why is she trying to hide it?_ She thought quiet as she stood up off of her bed and walked over to the television.

She picked up the blank tape in her hand and turned it around a couple times to see if there was any writing on it, but had no such luck. "Hmm… I'll just say it accidentally fell into my VCR and I had no idea about it until after I watched it." She justified to herself as she slipped the blank tape into the VCR below the television, picked up the VCR and television remotes, and walked back over to the edge of her bed.

Tonya quietly sat down on the edge of her bed with both remotes in her hands. She pressed the 'On' button for the television and watched the silent static appear on the muted television before pressing the 'On' button on the VCR. She pressed the 'Play' button on the VCR remote next and then set the VCR remote on the bed next to her before un-muting the television.

Soon the static of the television disappeared and a black and white picture with no sound appeared on the screen. Tonya's green eyes focused on the screen in slight confusion and in interesting before she felt her heart sink and her hand raise up to her mouth. Her green eyes went wide in horror and a soft gasp escaped her lips.

"Oh my GOD…"


	23. Revved Up

**A New Team, A New Age**  
Chapter 22: Revved Up 

The loud sound of clacking and clattering came from within the mansion garage, but to every student that was within hearing distance it was normal. It was Noah Grissom (Clutch) and the slightly mysterious student named Ndahiro, but everyone called him Hiro. Every Friday they got together and did a check over all the vehicles in the garage to make sure they were working in top condition.

A couple of the garage doors were open in order to ventilate the garage from all the smells from Noah and Hiro's work. The garage was setup almost like a showroom floor for cars. There were cars behind, in front, and beside other cars, but somehow there was a way to get them all out of the garage.

"So what happened next?" Hiro asked as he tightly a bolt inside of the hood of one of the cars.

"She basically kicked me out after that." Noah said from underneath the car.

"What?" Hiro asked wiped a few beads of sweat from his forehead and stepped back from the car.

Noah rolled out from underneath the car and shrugged as he wiped the grease off his wrench. "Yeah. She told me that if I didn't have anything important to talk about then I should leave, and since I didn't have anything important to talk about, I left." He shrugged and a half-smile.

"So you just left." Hiro sighed as he rolled his dark brown eyes. "Well that's a Feral for ya." Hiro shrugged as he grabbed another tool off the tool shelf and went back to work under the hood.

Noah sighed before standing up and looking under the hood with Hiro to check everything out and help him. "That's just Sam's nature." He said slightly defending her.

"One of these days it's going to get her into a lot of trouble though," Hiro warned.

"One of these days?" Noah laughed. "It already has plenty of times." He smirked.

Hiro nodded a few times, "I don't doubt that, but you know what I mean."

"Yeah." Noah sighed before returning to work on the engine in silence.

"You know that a Feral's personality is to be alone and depend on themselves, right?" Hiro said through gritted teeth as he tighten another bolt tightly.

"Well if she's going to be on this team – let alone a team leader – she's going to have to realize she can and needs to depend on her team." Noah as he looked through the engine once again.

"You have too much hope at times." Hiro said quietly. "At least for her."

"So? She my partner in leading the team." Noah said in defense and slightly offended.

"If you say so." Hiro shrugged.

"Are you trying to get at something?" Noah asked as he stood up straight and looked at Hiro.

Hiro stood up also and wiped his wrench off on the already dirty towel, "Stating what I see." He shrugged.

Before Noah could respond, Linx and Hecate quietly walked in side by side, in unison. They both looked down in thought as they walked with one another through the garage to head inside.

Hiro and Noah watched the two girls walk with one another before exchanging looks with one another. "Where you two been?" Hiro asked calmly as he wiped his greasy hands off on the towel.

Both Linx and Hecate stopped walking and turned around at the same time, "Seeing Sparks." Hecate said in annoyance. She hated not knowing what Orion (Sparks) was talking about. She hated secrets.

Linx stayed quiet as she thought to herself. _Stay away. That's all he can say to us, and oddly enough I know we should._

Hiro stopped wiping his hands on the greasy towel as soon as Sparks' name was mentioned. "And what'd he have to say to you two?" He said slightly irritated.

"Nothing." Linx whispered before looking up at Hiro.

"Nothing of importance, at least." Hecate chimed in after Linx spoke. "If you'll excuse us." Hecate nodded her head before turning around to head back inside.

Linx looked up at Hiro with her two different colored hazel eyes before turning her head to follow Hecate. Her black flipped out hair, with the bright red highlights underneath it, turned with Linx as she walked away with her head held high.

When the door to the inside of the mansion closed, Noah spoke, "Linx is a very mysterious girl." He said calmly as he cleaned up a little bit.

"Everyone knows that." Hiro said as he walked over to where Noah was and began to help him clean up. "And that's why people want to know more about her. It's human nature to be curious about what one does not understand." He added.

"But I don't think anyone will ever understand her. The closest person to understanding her is Hecate, and she hasn't even begun to fully understand Linx."

"What are you getting at?" Hiro asked as he cocked an eyebrow at Noah.

"Just stating what I see." Noah mocked him with a smirk.

Hiro paused for a moment and then rolled his brown eyes. "Just worried about those two. I don't trust this 'Sparks' guy with them."

"Whatever you say Hiro." Noah shrugged with a chuckle before moving on to the next car. Hiro shook his head as he followed Noah over to the next car not wanting to get into an argument or discuss the matter at that time.

Noah popped the hood of the car from inside the car, while Hiro unlatched and pulled it up into the air. Noah got out of the car and walked over to the hood where Hiro was standing. They both began to examine it before Hiro looked over at Noah, "I'll tackle the under carriage?"

"Sounds good to me." Noah nodded before walking over to the tool shelf and grabbing a few things. Hiro grabbed the board, laid on his back, and slid himself underneath the car.

After a few minutes of starting on the new car, the garage door to the mansion opened up. Sam walked out of the house dressed in slightly baggy cargo pants with a camouflage print and a white wifebeater that slightly showed her stomach. Her light auburn hair was left down and she left it wavy and slightly tousled. She set stepped down the steps into the garage she didn't even look at where her helmet was, but still managed to grab it with ease as she came down the stairs.

Hiro slid out from underneath the car slightly to see Sam and then nudged Noah to look up. When Noah looked up and saw Sam, he opened his mouth to say something to her, but Sam quickly interrupted him, "Save it Grissom." She said coldly as she walked straight passed him as she slipped her black motorcycle helmet over her head.

Noah looked down at Hiro, who gave him a half-hearted shrug before they both looked over at the loud sound of Sam's motorcycle starting up. She revved the engine couple times to warm up the bike before sliding the visor on her helmet down over her hazel-green eyes.

"Sam, wait!" Noah tried to shout over her motorcycle's engine in the enclosed space, but Sam didn't listen.

She kicked up the kickstand and sped out of the garage with a small screech. The leaves outside on the ground kicked up into the air behind her wheels as she flew through the grounds of the mansion. She reached the gates and as soon as they were open enough for her to get out, she did. Moreover, after a few minutes she was completely out of site.

"Damn." Noah cursed as he shook his head and turned around to the car. "Great she just ups and leaves without telling anyone where she's going… What if we need her for something?" Noah sighed in frustration. _What a team leader she turned out to be? What was Sean thinking making someone like her a team leader?_

"She's going home." Hiro said softly as he sat up and looked off in the direction in which Sam had driven off.

"What?" Noah asked as he looked down at Hiro. "How do you know?"

"You notice the ring on her finger?" He asked as he looked up at Noah with his dark brown eyes.

"What ring?"

"Obviously not," Hiro rolled his eyes as he used Noah's hand to stand up. "When you're part of a gang there's always some symbol of loyalty, and Sam's symbol is a ring… She was wearing her ring when she took off."

Noah looked off in the direction where Sam had driven off into and sighed. _Home, huh?_ He thought silently. "You know where her home is?"

"I could find out." Hiro shrugged.

"Do it." Noah demanded as if he was giving a command to a solider. Hiro nodded. He hated to be demanded around, but he knew that Noah may have been a friend of his, but Hiro viewed him as a leader first, friend second.

**BAM**

The garage doors flung open, scaring both Hiro and Noah at the loud noise.

"What the hell!" Noah shouted as Tonya jumped over the steps down to the garage and came to a quick hault.

"Where's Sam!" She asked in heaving pant.

"What? Why? What's wrong Tonya?" Noah asked as he looked over Tonya, who was completely out of breath.

"Who cares Grissom!" She shouted in annoyance. "Where's Samantha!" She said louder.

"You just missed her." Hiro said calmly, after he collected himself.

"Damnit!" Tonya said in annoyance. "Where'd she go?"

"Home."

"Can you please tell me what's going on!" Noah demanded.

"Thanks." Tonya sighed as she nodded to Hiro before turning around.

"Hey wait!" Noah shouted at Tonya, who ignored him and kept walking away. "You can't just come in here demanding to see Sam and not tell me – the team leader – what's wrong." He said matter of fact like.

Tonya reached the door and turned around to look at Noah, "Sure I can." She smirked.

"No you can't!" He said as if she was insane.

Tonya chuckled, "I can, and I just did." She paused. "You're not the only team leader, so I don't have to tell you jack." She said before slamming the garage door shut behind her.

"Ah!" Noah sighed loudly in frustration as he violently pulled "The women in this house drive me insane!" Hiro smirked at Noah's comment and then slid himself back underneath the car to continue his work.


	24. Fallen Hopes

**Author's Note:** Hey yall, I'm soooo sorry this took so long, but my computer got messed up and so I had to wait to get all my files transferred off of it in order to continue writing. I just got it back a couple of days ago, so here yall go. Sorry if it isn't up to my normal standards. I'm a little rusty in my own opinion. It'll get better, I promise! Thanks for those who are keeping loyal!

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 23: Fallen Hopes

The members of Chaos and Orion (Sparks) were still around the rectangle table with the blueprints spread across them as Rashad (Sonic) continued to dictate to them the revised plan for their attack. The living room area around them was lightly lit and everything about the room had an ominous feel to it. Occasionally the members of Chaos would look around at one another with shifting eyes which were filled with selfish, devious thoughts.

Rashad's brown eyes looked around at his teammates and took in that Karen, the one known as Diamond was missing from the meeting. "Where's Karen?" Rashad in complete annoyance when he finally took a break from dictating to everyone.

"She said she had a meetin' suga." Mary-Lynn (Aphrodite) said coyly.

"What?" Rashad asked in disbelief. "This is more important than any meeting she might have had."

"She said it was with a potential new member." Natalie (Miracle) said in her thick British accent.

No one in Chaos had noticed that out of the shadow in the corner of the room, behind everyone in the room, Karen and Arcane (Shadow Runner) had risen from the floor of the room from the shadows. "Were you talking about me?" Karen asked in her French accent as she stepped away from Arcane and brushed her blonde, pink tipped hair off of her shoulders.

Everyone turned around to look at Karen and the man in black. "Where the hell have you been?" Rashad barked.

"Recruiting." Karen said proudly as she walked over to the chair that Natalie was sitting in and stood behind it.

"Better be one damn good recruit if it meant you missing a meeting." Rashad huffed as his brown eyes followed Karen from the corner of the room to behind Natalie's chair.

Arcane took one step away from the shadow, though he still stood close to it. He didn't trust the people in the room as his deep green eyes shifted from person to person in the room. He didn't fear any of them, and he also didn't trust any of them. _Best not to speak, until spoken to…_ He thought quietly in his head.

"How'd you get in?" Ashley asked in his Texas accent as his green eyes looked over at Karen.

Karen smirked deviously to everyone. "Like I said, I was recruiting, and as Rashad said it was a "damn good" recruit." She nodded slightly sarcastically to Rashad before turning her blue eyes to look at Arcane in the corner. "I would like all of you to meet Arcane Tripidicus, also known as Shadow Runner." Everyone turned their attention away from Karen and looked at Arcane, who gave a silent nod to all of them when he was addressed. "He is how I got in here without any of you knowing." She said proudly as Arcane cautiously made his way over to the rest of the group; noting the blueprints on the table.

Mary-Lynn had resumed filing her nails once again after her violet eyes looked over at Arcane. "Ya done good sweetheart," she said to Karen without looking at her, "but ya ain't done as good as Natalie and I." She said as she smirked down at her nails and then looked over at Karen. "This is Orion Paradox, aka Sparks." She said as she pointed to Orion, who was standing near the chair that she was sitting in, with her nail file.

"Pleasure." Orion nodded to Karen, who looked annoyed at Mary-Lynn.

Karen nodded politely to Orion before moving her blue eyes back to Mary-Lynn, "And what does he do?" Karen she asked as she raised one of her eyebrows at her.

"It doesn't matter," Rashad snapped before looking back and forth between the two girls, "what matters is this plan going through like clockwork. No mistakes." He reminded everyone as he glanced around to everyone. "Arcane, our plan is to take technological equipment from the technology center." He said briefly as he smoothed out the blueprints over the table for Arcane to get a better look at.

"Alright." Arcane nodded with no emotions in his voice.

"However, we won't be needing your assistance on this mission." Rashad said, which slightly caught both Karen and Arcane off guard.

"What?" Karen asked.

"I'm not risking having someone who has never trained with us go along on such an important mission." Rashad said sternly to Karen.

"But Orion is getting to go." She slightly whined.

"Because we are paying him. It's strictly business with him, nothing more." Rashad said again. "That's the end of the discussion. Orion is coming along, while Arcane is staying here."

Arcane's deep green eyes looked over at Karen through his black sunglasses in annoyance. _I come to join your team only to be set aside? This is bullshit…_

Karen looked over at Arcane and then quickly looked away from him so that her blue eyes fell upon Mary-Lynn, who was calming filing her nails with a smirk playing on her red lips. _She probably used her powers on Rashad to make herself look better._ She thought bitterly.

Aurora (Satine) quietly walked down the hall in the opposite direction as Tonya, who had just bumped into her. She raised her frail hand up to her head and carefully pushed her red curls to the side of her face and soon her green eyes became blurry. Everything around her began to spin, which made Aurora walk over to the hallway wall and lean against it for support.

**THUD**

"What was that?" Jazmine asked as she looked over the back of the couch were the commotion of Tonya and Aurora had just taken place.

"Ah dunno." Gabe said in his thick southern accent as he stood up. "Come on." He said as he quickly walked around the couch and out of the living room area, followed by Jazmine.

"Oh no…" Jazmine gasped as she looked to the side of Gabe's arms down the hallway.

In the middle of the white-tiled floor was the frail figure of Aurora unconscious on the ground. Her red curls covered her face and were spread across the white tile. Her pale Irish skin was almost the same color as the cold tile she was laying upon.

"Come on!" Gabe said in concern as he took off running down the hallway to Aurora's fallen body, with Jazmine right behind him.

They both fell down to either side of Aurora and Gabe carefully brushed her soft red curls off of her face. "Aurora can you hear me?" He asked quietly in his thick southern accent.

"Rora? It's me. Jazmine." Jazmine said as she felt her skin. "She's freezing." She said as she looked up at Gabe in concern.

"We have to get her to Jamal." He said as he carefully scooped her up into his arms and hurried towards the medical lab, while Jazmine hurried over to the intercom to page Jamal.

"Jamal?" Jazmine asked over the intercom in worry. The was a moment of silence and no response. "Jamal!" She shouted into the intercom.

"Yes? What's wrong?" Jamal huffed over the intercom.

"Aurora collapsed. Gabe's taking to the medical wing right now. Meet us there." Jazmine said as she ran away from the intercom as fast as she could to run after Gabe.

Gabe carefully set Aurora's fragile body on one of the medical tables, just as Jamal came in wiping his greasy hands on a towel. "What happened?" Jamal asked as he began to examine her.

"We dunno." Gabe said with a shrug.

"We heard a thud and went out in the hall and found her unconscious." Jazmine added. "Is she alright?"

"She seems to be fine." Jamal said as he stuck an IV into the top of her hand and taped it down. He wheeled an oxygen tank over to the side of her bed and placed a mask over her face and listened as the air softly pumped into her body.

"What's wrong with her?" Gabe asked as he looked down at Aurora's unconscious body.

"Aurora is so skinny that it's finally taken a toll on her." Jamal said remorsefully as he carefully tightened the straps on the oxygen mask. "She collapsed from not having enough of the essentials a body needs in her body. I'm going to keep her here for a few days so that she can recover." He said as he began to place monitors on her.

"But she's going to be fine, right?" Jazmine asked as her greenish-brown eyes watched Jamal place different machines against Aurora's pale skin.

"That's correct." Jamal said as he looked up at Jazmine. "You two have done everything you can do, so you might as well go about your lives." He said as he wrote a few things down on a piece of paper. "I'll keep you updated on her condition."

"Thanks." Jazmine nodded quietly as she turned and slowly walked out of the medical center, with Gabe behind her.

"She'll be alright." Gabe said softly as he placed a comforting hand against Jazmine's back.

"I hope you're right…" She said quietly.


	25. Searching For The Lost

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 24: Searching For The Lost

The large wooden front doors to the mansion slowly opened as Grace (Spitfire), Sean (Poseidon), Seth (Frostbite) and Dawn (Dreamer) all walked through them into the circle area. They had slipped in-and-out of the basement with the evidence they needed, while leaving enough behind that the police wouldn't know they were there. They all had managed to leave no trace of them behind and returned to the mansion. Cerebro had done a scan over them as they passed through the doorway in order to identify each of them.

"Seth do you know anything about Chaos' member named Diamond?" Sean asked in his Australian accent, as the four of them stood in a spread out circle in the middle of the front area.

Seth gave a nonchalant shrug, "Some things."

"Alright," Sean nodded as he thought. "well why don't you see what all you can find out in Jamal's database and then once you've found everything get back to me."

"Alright." Seth nodded.

Dawn stayed quiet as she looked back and forth between Seth and Sean as they spoke with her brown eyes, before turning to Grace. "Um, Grace?" She asked sheepishly.

"Yeah Dawn?" Grace said as she turned towards the younger girl, which made her black hair with the orange tips in the back slightly sway.

"I was wanting to contact Saria…" She said as her voice trailed off slightly. "You know? Twista?"

"Yeah I know who you're talking about," Grace nodded slowly, "but no one knows how to find her. She just shows up whenever she pleases, and as soon as she gets here it's like she disappears again." She shrugged. "It's like she doesn't like staying in one place for too long."

By this time, Seth and Sean had quit talking and had started to pay attention to Grace and Dawn's conversation. "You're wanting to find Twista?" Sean questioned as his blue eyes sparkled at Dawn.

"Yeah," Dawn said as she turned her attention towards Sean. _I want to thank her for bringing me here._ She thought quiet to herself.

"No one really knows how to get a hold of her, but the person who probably would know how is Jamal." Sean said as if trying to offer some sort of consolation to Dawn for not having the exact answer she was looking for.

Dawn looked at Sean and gave a slight nod. _Where do I find Jamal?_ She thought sarcastically though she didn't plan on asking any of the older members in fear of looking like an amateur.

"I'm heading down to see Jamal so if you want you can follow me…?" Seth offered with a soft smile to Dawn.

"Sure." She smiled back.

"I'll see what I can find Sean." Seth said to Sean with a nod and then heading down a hallway with Dawn by his side.

After Dawn and Seth had disappeared down the hallway, there was an awkward silence between Sean and Grace as they both stood alone in the middle of the room. They both avoided each other's eyes as they looked around at different pieces of tile on the ground near one another.

"Um-"

"Well-"

They both said at the same time before chuckling.

"Ladies first," Sean nodded.

"No, it's alright. What were you going to say?" Grace said as her green eyes looked into Sean's blue eyes.

"Nothing. You?"

"Nothing.

Both of them looked away from one another and stared at the ground once again. There was another moment of awkward silence between the two of them before Grace finally spoke up as her green eyes didn't leave the tile in front of Sean's feet. "Why is this so weird for us?" She asked before raising her eyes up to look at Sean.

Sean paused for a minute before also looking up at Grace. "Because best friends aren't supposed to kiss, and we did." He said bluntly in his Australian accent. "So now everything seems complicated."

"Isn't it complicated?" Grace sighed.

"I don't know, to be honest." _Yeah I do, and it is._ Sean thought with a sigh. "I know it's complicated for me…" He said as his voice trailed off.

"Why?"

"Because a part of me wanted it to happen," he sighed in defeat as his blue eyes didn't look away from Grace's.

Grace opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. She slowly closed her mouth and looked down at the tile. "Then it's complicated for me too." She whispered.

Sean stepped forward towards Grace and softly placed his finger underneath her chin to raise her head to look at him. "Then let's take this one step at a time." He offered.

"What's the next step then?" She asked.

Sean softly slid his hand over to Grace's and carefully took her hand in his. "I don't know what it is," he whispered, "but I'm wanting to take it with you."

Grace looked down at their intertwined hands and then looked up at Sean to meet their eyes together once again. "Alright." She whispered with a soft smile.

"Shutting the hood," Noah (Clutch) warned Ndahiro (Void), who was still underneath the car. Hiro rolled out from underneath the car and Noah pulled the hood down with a loud **thump**.

Noah walked over to the rolling tool box and quietly began to clean off his tools, before Hiro walked over to him. They stood there in silence, cleaning their tools while Noah's head raced. _Why would Sam go home? What is her problem?_

"Sam still bothering you?" Hiro asked before glancing over at Noah.

"Yeah." He huffed as he slightly slammed the wench down on top of the tool box. "I just wanna know why she left." He sighed.

"Probably had some business she needed to finish up." Hiro shrugged as he finished cleaning off his tools.

"Why now?" Noah looked over at Hiro in question. "She hasn't returned home since she came here, so why would she choose now to deal with old business?"

"Same reasons others choose to wait." Hiro nodded before placing the newly cleaned tools in their appropriate drawers.

Noah sighed in frustration as he cleaned his greasy hands off on one of the towels before tossing it over to Hiro so that he too could clean off his hands. "You know about gangs right?" Noah questioned.

"Yes." Hiro said calmly before looking over at Noah. "Why do you ask?"

"When you find out which gang she belongs to, could you go talk to her?" Noah asked slightly sheepishly.

"Can you not trust her to return?" Hiro asked, trying to avoid answering whether he would go or not

"That's what I'm worried about." Noah said as he leaned against one of the cars. "Her returning home could mean her not returning here."

Hiro paused from cleaning his hands and looked at Noah, who had his arms crossed over his chest and was staring at the ground with his grey-blue eyes. "Do you truly believe that?"

Noah didn't respond right away before slowly nodding and then looking up at Hiro, "Yeah." He paused, "I do."

Hiro looked down at the ground for a moment and sighed, "Alright." He sighed before looking over at Noah. "Once I find out which gang she belongs to, I'll try to go talk to her." Noah slowly raised his head to look up at Hiro. "But I don't know what you want me to talk to her about…?"

"I just wanna know if she's coming home." Noah sighed.

Hiro sighed, "To her, she just went home." He paused. "This was never viewed as her home in her eyes."

Noah paused as he took in the information and sighed. As much he bickered with Sam and argued with her, she was still a close friend of his. She was his partner in leading the team and she was the backbone that everyone fell on. "Then I want to know if she's coming back."

"You might not get the answer you're looking for," Hiro warned.

Noah's grey-blue eyes shot over to Hiro, "Just do it." He said sternly.

Hiro stood up straight before giving a half-nod, "Alright." He turned on his heel and quietly walked out of the garage to go research where Sam had sped off to.

Noah stood there in the garage in silence as his hands balled into fist. He leaned his head back against the car he was leaning against. He let out a soft sighed, as his shaggy sandy blonde hair contrasted against the shiny black paint of the car. _I don't care what Hiro says…This place is just as much Sam's home as it is the rest of ours._


	26. Traitorous Secrets

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 25: Traitorous Secrets

The soft thuds of Tonya's skate shoes softly echoed down the long hallway of the girls dorms as she walked towards another long hallway that led to the front staircase of the school. Her black dreadlocks were left down and tousled about her head, while she was dressed in sweats and a black hoodie. Her green eyes still were tired from just waking up, even though it was the afternoon.

She turned around the corner and headed down the long hallway to the front of the mansion and connected the boys and girls dorms together. She let out a small yawn and stuffed her hands into the front pouch of her hoodie. Her eyes narrowed as the bright sunlight washed over her when she came to the balcony that overlooked the front foyer and split off to the sides for the dual staircase. _Damn sun._ She thought bitterly in her British accent.

She quietly began to walk down one of the two staircases, when she noticed Lyndsey (Caution) with a camera. Tonya paused near the top of the stairs and followed Lyndsey around the foyer with her eyes. _What is she doing?_ Tonya thought in annoyance until she saw Lyndsey put the camera to her eye and take a picture of the staircase.

When Lyndsey pulled the camera away from her eye, she stared up at Tonya on the staircase. Both of their eyes locked on one another, but for different reasons. Tonya's green eyes narrowed as she stared down at Lyndsey, while Lyndsey's brown eyes stared back in confusion as to why Tonya was staring at her. Lyndsey torn her eyes away from Tonya and walked through a hallway underneath the staircase towards the larger foyer area that led to different parts of the mansion.

Tonya slowly made her way down the wooden stairs as her green eyes shifted from side-to-side. _Why was she taking pictures?_

"Lyndsey Tyler. Caution… Access granted." A mechanic voice echoed through the tiled hallway as a large metal door with a large X on it opened. Lyndsey looked over her shoulder, which was covered in a black denim jacket, before she slipped through the doors into the large empty danger room.

Slowly lights began to flick on throughout the plain metal room as she headed towards the center of the room, where a large tower was positioned. She tapped her van shoes on the metal ground as a red beam scanned over her brown eyes before letting her enter the tower. "Welcome Lyndsey Tyler." Another mechanic voice said as the elevator doors opened to her.

"Why thank you." She mocked in her Australian accent before the doors closed behind her to the elevator.

Lyndsey's brown eyes stared at the closed metal doors before her, until a soft chime sounded and the doors opened to a large control panel area. Her eyes shifted from side-to-side as the lights flickered on throughout the control panel area and she made her way across the to a large chair. She gracefully sat down in the chair and scooted closer to the control panel. _Perfect._ She thought as she positioned her fingers on the keyboard.

Her fingers clicked across the plastic keys as different screens popped up before her. Her brown eyes flicked back and forth between the different screens as she looked for something in specific. "Where is it…?" She asked absentmindedly as she continued to search until she quit typing. "Found you." She smirked deviously as she stared at a file on the screen, which contained different documents about the people who lived in the mansion along with a mansion blueprint.

Lyndsey reached inside of her black denim jacket and pulled out a single CD case. She quietly opened it and placed it in the CD drive and after a couple minutes of typing on the keyboard, the files began to copy onto the CD.

Tonya shielded her green eyes momentarily as she walked outside to the side of the mansion where the lush garden was. She wasn't much of one for the garden or outside. She slowly walked around the garden in hopes of finding who she was looking for. _Usually she's out here…_ She thought before Linx came into view, under the shade of a large tree.

Linx's two different colored hazel eyes were closed and her short black hair, with the bright red highlights underneath, was slightly flipped out. She was wearing jeans and a large plain black t-shirt that hung off of one of her shoulders. She was meditating quiet under the tree without making a noise. It was her afternoon ritual in order to control the voices of the dead so that she doesn't go insane.

"Um, Linx?" Tonya said as she slowly walked closer towards the older girl.

Linx opened her light hazel right eye, which had three birthmarks in the shape of a triangle about an inch below it, but she kept her left eye closed. She closed her eyes once again and then slowly opened both of her eyes to look at Tonya. "Yes?" She asked calmly.

Tonya walked closer to Linx and then slowly sat down in front of her. "I need to ask you something." She said softly in her British accent.

Linx thought for a moment and then nodded, "Alright, what is it?"

"Okay," Tonya took a deep breath in, _What's the best way to phrase this? _She thought before starting to speak. "I found out some information that I probably shouldn't have found out." She said as her green eyes looked at Linx and occasionally would glance to either side of her. "Nevertheless, I found it out. However, the information I found out pertains to a friend and if I tell this friend what I found out, she'll not only be hurt, but it could cause serious problems for the team." Tonya sighed as her green eyes looked into Linx's two different colored eyes.

"You want me to tell you what you should do, right?" Linx asked coyly. Tonya took a deep breath in and nodded her head slowly. She hated asking others for help, but in a situation this delicate she didn't know what to do. "Tell your friend." She said bluntly.

"What?" Tonya was caught off guard with how quick it took Linx to answer her problem that had been bothering Tonya all night and day.

"Tell your friend," Linx repeated.

"But it's going to hurt her." Tonya protested.

Linx kept calm, even though Tonya was starting to act out. "She'll find out someday, and it'll hurt a lot more for her to know that you never told her."

"But what about that team?"

"What about us?" Linx shrugged. "We're a team. The true members aren't going anywhere." She reminded her.

Tonya looked down at the ground and noticed a little ladybug crawling on a blade of grass. She fell in a trance as she watched the tiny creature crawl along the grass without any certain direction. It didn't have a care in the world. The little creature flapped it's wings a couple of times and then took flight into the air. Tonya blinked her eyes and looked up at Linx, "Alright." She sighed in defeat.

"Was that all?" Linx asked with a soft smile.

Tonya absentmindedly looked down at the ground and gave a slow nod, "Yeah."

Linx gave one small nod and then closed her eyes once again to go back to her meditating. Tonya looked up at Linx and then quietly got up to leave. She stuck her hands within the small front pouch to her hoodie as she walked. "Oh Tonya," Linx said aloud, but didn't open her eyes. Tonya halfway turned around and looked at the older girl, though she didn't say anything. "It's never good to suppress your feelings." She smirked.

Tonya raised her pierced eyebrow at Linx for a moment before turning around once again and heading back towards the mansion. _I don't suppress my feelings._ Tonya thought before she looked up at saw Sean and Grace walking towards her holding hands. She quietly stepped off to the side of them and continued heading in the opposite direction of the couple.

When she reached the door that led back into the mansion, she quietly placed her hand on the doorknob and pulled the door open. She placed one of feet inside the doorway, but instead of going inside right away, she paused. Her green eyes looked over her shoulder at Sean, as he laughed with Grace in happiness. She slowly blinked her eyes away from them and stepped through the doorway to let the door close behind her.


	27. Once You Leave Home It

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 26: Once You Leave Home It's Never The Same

The soft rev of a motorcycle engine died down slowly as it came to a hault outside of a large brick warehouse-looking building. Sam's nimble fingers slowly slid her black helmet off of her head, which made some of her auburn hair tumble out from inside of it. She held the helmet against the side of her hip as she examined the warehouse with her hazel-green eyes as she felt a wash of comfort wash over her. She watched as a couple of people walked up to the door, whispered something to the door, and then were let inside.

It was home.

She hooked her helmet to the back of her motorcycle before quietly riding it over to the large steel door.

**BANG BANG BANG**

A small opening slid open as a pair of brown eyes stared at her through the opening. "It can't be..." A male voice gasped from behind the door. "It just can't be..."

"Believe it Max," Sam smirked at the pair of eyes.

The small opening quickly slid shut and while clammering echoed against the steel door, Sam got off of her motorcycle to stand in front of the door. Once the door was opening, a large, muscular black man stood in front of her with eyes that match those behind the opening. "Feral?" The man named Max gasped as he looked Sam over.

"In the flesh," Sam shrugged before the Max scoped her up into his arms and swung her around. Sam laughed as she wrapped her arms around Max's neck while her auburn hair swung around in the air.

"Come in, come in," Max said as he moved out of the way so that Sam could walk her bike inside the warehouse. "Does James know you're here?"

Sam chuckled, "Of course not."

"Will he be surprised." Max laughed as he took her bike from her in order to place it in the storage area.

Sam stood there on the entrance platform as she looked around at all of the different people and levels of the building in amazement. This was once the place that she had learned to call her home, but everything was different. Everything seemed to be more hightech since she left it. There were more people than ever before.

People started rushing to the railing from the raftor where the rooms were to stare at Sam as she stood there alone below everyone like a monkey on display at the zoo. _Word sure travels fast._ Sam thought as she heard people whispering as they stared down at her.

It had been awhile since Sam had returned to her gang house - two years to be exact - and so much had changed. She had drifted into a legend told throughout the gang and with her brother being in one of the top ranking positions in the gang she was like royality. So her return had spread faster than wildfire and everyone wanted to see James' sister who was a mutant.

"Kit?" A man's voice asked from behind her.

A smile formed across her lips as she quickly turned around and jumped into James' arms. "James!" She shouted as she wrapped her arms around his neck and felt his strong arms wrap around her waist..

"I can't believe you're here," James whispered and then slowly set her down before looking down at his baby sister, "What are you doing here?"

"I thought it was about time that I paid you a visit and checked up on how things were going," she laughed as she looked around with her hands on her hips, "and it looks like you're doing quite nicely for yourselves." She chuckled.

"We'd like to think so," James chuckled as he looked around at the hundreds of faces stared over the railings at them. "We've done a few changes since you've been home."

"I can tell," Sam teased.

"Come on, I'll show you around." James said as he turned on his heel and slowly started to walk up the wobbling stairs.

Sam followed behind James and phased out everything he was saying as she looked around at everything. Nothing was the same anymore to her. It was as though everything was playing before her in slow motion like an old film. They passed by the area where her old room was and Sam stopped to find a young mother in there with her newborn infant.

James walked ahead, while Sam stood there in the doorway staring at the mother as she lovely rocked her daughter back and forth. Sam felt emptiness take over her as she watched the mother and daughter interact. James stopped mid-sentence and turned around to find Sam far behind him. He slowly walked back to Sam and placed his hand on her shoulder as he looked into the room. Sam looked up at James quietly, "Where's my room?"

James sighed, "We thought that you weren't ever coming back…" He said as his voice softly trailed off. Sam slowly nodded her head and turned away from the room and began to walk away. James ran after her, "Kit I'm sorry."

Sam shrugged, "It's alright. I understand."

"The guest areas are in the lobby downstairs when you first came," James said hesitating, "and that's the only area open."

Sam stopped and closed her eyes for a second before turning around to James, "It's late. I should probably go to bed." James opened his mouth to protest, but Sam quickly spoke, "Besides it looked as though everyone was asleep when I came in."

James sighed and nodded. "Goodnight Kit," He kissed her softly on the forehead and then continued up the stairs towards his room.

Sam stood there for a few seconds until James disappeared into the darkness before she turned around to walk back towards the lobby. She stopped momentarily in front of her old room once again at the mother that was now laying her baby down to bed. She was softly humming a lullaby to the child, which made Sam feel a weight on her heart before she turned to continue down the stairs towards the lobby.

Sam slowly walked over to the guest area where cots where setup for visitors. As she sat down on the stiff mattress she felt awkward and uncomfortable.

She wasn't a visitor in this place; this place was her home.

Sam slowly got comfortable against the itchy cot and lay there with her hazel-green eyes open staring at the steel metal door in the darkness of the warehouse. It was as though the door mocked her while she was staring it.

This place was no longer her home…

The next morning the soft sunlight washed over the lobby onto Sam as the morning began to break. Her eyes fluttered open as she didn't hear a soul moving throughout the warehouse. She quietly sat on her cot as she waited to hear movement from anyone. When she heard nothing she began to move throughout the warehouse to explore everything that had changed on her own.

When the first person woke inside of the warehouse, Sam was already dressed and standing by her bike. She wore a dark green sundress with half of her auburn hair pulled back. She revved her engine as quiet as possible before driving her bike up to the garage door, which automatically began to rise. She slid her black helmet carefully over her head and then quickly sped out of the garage.

She flew through the streets as she felt the cool morning air whip over her body and the ends of her sundress dance in the wind by her side. Her mind was somewhere else as she turned corner after corner, but it didn't really matter where her mind was. She knew where she was going. She couldn't ever forget this place, even if she wanted to… And most of the time she wanted to.

Sam quietly pulled her motorcycle up to the curb and killed the engine. She stared at the tombstones that seemed to stretch out for miles in silence. She wanted to forget, but every time she came back to this place all her memories followed.

_Blood splattered against the door that she and James were hiding behind and against her face. It was still warm against her forehead, but it was cold without life. She watched the gun hit the ground as if nothing had happened, and she watched the man behind the gun act the same way as he walked away._

She quietly slid her helmet off of her head and left it on her black leather seat. Her hands were folded in front of her as a cool breeze swayed her auburn hair from side to side.

_She couldn't feel any emotion as she felt James pull the door open and run towards their fallen brother. Her eyes watched in a slow motion trance as James picked up the fallen gun to avenge his older brother._

_One shot... Two shot… Three shot and then a thud._

_Her eyes stared emotionlessly at the back of James as he stood there holding the smoke gun. She watched as teardrops hit the floor near the bloody mess that was left on the floor._

Sam stood in front of the tombstone in silence as she felt the cold air wash over her. She didn't want to remember any of it, but it kept playing over and over in her head like an old black and white film without sound.

_Sam was only twelve. She stood there over the blood mess of her older brother staring into the gaping hole in the back of his head. It was a clean shot. She could see the floor straight through, even though it was covered in blood._

_She heard the cold metal of the gun hit the ground once again as James slowly walked over to her and stared down at their fallen brother._

_Her superman wasn't coming back from this one…_

She stood in silence as she stared at the tombstone in front, which read "Adam Joseph Wilder". She lowered her head and softly spoke as she smoothed her sundress out, "You always said that I looked my best in green." She looked up at the tombstone as if hoping it would respond… But it never did.


	28. Learning Is Teaching

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 27: Learning Is Teaching

Jazmine had her arms wrapped around her sides as she quietly walked down the hallway away from the medical lab with a million thoughts running through her head. _Why didn't I see it? How couldn't I see it? Why didn't she tell me?_ She thought over and over as she thought about Aurora's situation.

"Hey," Gabe whispered as he set his hand lightly on Jazmine's shoulder, "she's gonna to be alright." He tried to reassure her.

Jazmine looked up into Gabe's ice blue eyes with her greenish-brown eyes, "You're right." She sighed, even though she didn't fully believe her own words.

They walked in silence side by side down the hallway until they reached an elevator at the end of the hall. Gabe tapped the "up" arrow button that lit up in a florescent blue light. After a couple seconds of waiting, the elevator chimed and the steel doors opened to a wood-lined elevator car. They quietly stepped inside and Gabe leaned in front of Jazmine to pressed the "L" button in order to take them back up to the lobby of the mansion. They sat there in the awkward silence of the humming elevator. The doors chimed again when they reached the level marked "L" before Gabe spoke, "Would ya like to take a walk with mah?" He blurted out to Jazmine without looking at her.

She looked down at the ground for a moment before looking at Gabe as the doors to the elevator opened. "I'd like that."

Gabe politely opened the large glass down to the garden for Jazmine and let her walk out before he followed behind her. He was the stereotypical southern gentleman. He quietly followed along side of her as they strolled through the lush garden full of life, which was quite the change compared to the rest of the world they lived in.

"I don't know that much about you, except that you always are with that girl Tonya." Jazmine said trying to strike up a conversation.

Gabe chuckled, "It's more like she's always with mah." He teased. "She's mah best friend here. It's a strange relationship between us but it seems to work nevertheless."

Jazmine nodded her head a couple of times as she listened, _So he's not dating her… Could've fooled everyone here._

"A lot of people think we're dating," he laughed, "but there's no way."

"That's what I thought." Jazmine laughed as she looked down at her watch.

"Nope, nothing's goin on with us," He said in his thick southern accent.

"Oh crap." Jazmine gasped in disappointment. "I was supposed to workout right now in the danger room. I reserved it." She sighed as she started to jog back towards the door they had come out of, "Do you mind if we reschedule?" She shouted back to Gabe as she held the door open for herself.

Gabe was a little taken back by the quickness of everything and slightly began to stumble over his words, "Um, yeah. Ah mean, sure that's fine." He waved as Jazmine disappeared inside of the mansion and the door closed behind her.

Gabe turned around and looked around the empty garden in content. The soft breeze made the willows dance in the wind as the fragrance from all the flowers swirled into the air and filled Gabe's lungs. It was beautiful and full of life. He quietly began walking around the garden in silence as his mind drifted around in the fragrance of the flowers before he noticed something dark within the garden. It was Hecate.

She was dressed in tight black jeans and a dark grey tank top, while her platinum blonde hair was left down so that it swayed against the small of her back as she walked. Gabe stood still for a moment as he watched her walk under the shade of a tree and just stare at the tree. Her hand reached up to touch the tree, but she solemnly lowered it. She was always interesting to Gabe because out of everyone in the mansion her and Linx were the most misunderstood, and yet the two of them understood each other.

Gabe looked around him for a couple of seconds before he found a patch of tulips nearby. He quietly plucked one and walked over to Hecate. "Ya look like ya could use some cheerin up..." Gabe smiled as he held the flower out to her. He truly was a southern gentleman.

Hecate slowly turned around, which made her blonde hair swirl around her in a sea of light. Her deep blue eyes looked into Gabe's ice blue eyes and then looked down at the yellow tulip and gave a half-hearted smile at the flower. "You really tired, huh?" She said softly.

"Ah'm just tryin' to be nice." He smiled.

Hecate softly touched the tulip with her finger and it slowly melted from a vibrant yellow color to a rich black color and became cold to Gabe's touch, "I've never been able to nice." She sighed. It was part of Hecate's curse. She technically couldn't freely touch anything without killing it. She was learning to concentrate so that she could touch things, but it was much harder and a lot easier to just not touch.

Gabe felt the flower grow hard in his hands before he looked back up at Hecate, who was staring at the tulip. "It might be cause ya were never taught." He smiled.

Hecate looked up at his face. _He's still smiling… He's not afraid. _"Or maybe it's because I never wanted to learn."

Gabe nodded a couple times before holding the tulip out farther to Hecate. "Ya can't live ya life that way." He said as he watch Hecate take the flower from him and then began to slowly walk away from her.

"I don't tell you how to live your life…" Hecate said to him as she watched him walk away for a moment, while she held the flower in her hand.

"Ya right, but it was more friendly advice and an invitation to learn." He shrugged as he didn't turn around and kept walking.

_An invitation…_ Hecate thought quietly to herself as she held the tulip before turning and walking towards Gabe.

She didn't say anything about him stopping, but it was as though he knew to stop. Hecate caught up to him and they began to walk along side one another in complete silence; it was enough for them. Occasionally, one of them would look at the other or they would catch each other's eyes and then look away again. Neither one had to say a single word, because just walking next to each other was teaching them both something about one another.

The crackle of the newspaper echoed in the dimly lit living room area of the Chaos headquarters. Natalie's (Miracle) honey blonde hair was draped over the back of the couch as she read a section in the paper with her silver eyes. _It went perfectly…_ She thought to herself.

The creek of a door opened as Karen (Diamond) and Mary-Lynn (Aphrodite) walked into the living room area and spotted Natalie reading the paper. "What are you doing?" Karen asked in her thick French accent.

"Reading about how well our heist went." Natalie smirked.

Mary-Lynn chuckled as she slumped into a large lounge chair near Natalie. "And what do they have to say bout us?" She smirked in her thick southern accent.

"That it went perfectly." Natalie laughed in her British accent.

Mary-Lynn shrugged, "Exactly what I thought they'd say." She chuckled as she flipped her curly blonde hair over her shoulder.

"Let me see." Karen asked as she took the paper from Natalie and read the article over before folding the paper up again to the front page and laying it on the tabletop.

"Did ya not think Ah wanted to see it?" Mary-Lynn asked as she looked at Karen. _How rude._

"I'm sorry." Karen nodded as she slid the paper over to Mary-Lynn.

Mary-Lynn rolled her eyes and grabbed the paper to look at, but the front page caught her eye before anything else.

"Mutant Genocide In The West" was what read across the front of the paper in large letters. Mary-Lynn felt her heart drop and then her blood begin to boil as she stared at the writing with her violet colored eyes..

"You alright Mary-Lynn?" Natalie asked out of concern.

"Of course Ah ain't!" She screamed as she turned the paper around to show Natalie and Karen the headlines. "Those damn humans keep thinking they can just erase the "problem" but we ain't problem. It's them!"

"Time will make everything right." Karen said out of anger.

"Ah'm sick of time. We've been hearin' that for years. Ah'm sick of it!" Mary-Lynn shouted.

"We can't do anything right now, so you might as well calm down." Natalie reminded her. "In due time… One city at a time."

Mary-Lynn sighed and turned the paper back around once again. She stared at the headline one more time before violently flipping through the paper to find the article about the heist of the jewelry store. _Damn humans… We should've killed them when they begged for their lives back at the store…_


	29. A Mother's Wisdom Never Dies

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 28: A Mother's Wisdom Never Dies

The beautiful craved wooden door leading out to the garden quietly opened as Hiro (Void) walked out into the garden. Everyday, he tried to take time out of his day in order to walk through the garden to clear his head. A lot of the students did it because it was essential in the hectic world they lived in. However, Hiro was different about it; he did it to appreciate what he was given and not to mourn what he lost along the way.

While he was walking, his dark brown eyes followed the unseen wind as it danced in the air. He watched the different flowers sway back and forth to an unheard beat and the willow dance along side the wind. As he watched the willow dance, he noticed someone sitting under the cover of the willow. He began to slowly walk closer and closer before he realized it was Linx.

Linx's all black hair with red highlights underneath was pulled back into a ponytail for once, and she was dressed in jeans and a rather large, baggy teal shirt. Her legs were crossed and her two-toned eyes were closed as she meditated.

Hiro cocked his head to the side and stood there for a moment. _I heard about the person they call "Grimm" and everything that goes along with her…_ He thought to himself as he watched her underneath the dancing willow. _But Sam's file mentioned Ghost and when I looked up Ghost I knew I needed to find out about him._ Hiro sighed as he cautiously walked closer towards Linx.

Hiro wasn't one to remember his past. He hated talking about it and he hated remembering it. A lot of people at the mansion hated remembering it, but Hiro was definitely one of the few that did everything in his power to forget it.

Hiro softly brushed the willow branches out of his way as he stepped underneath the canopy of the willow and stood before Linx. He didn't know what to say and she hadn't seemed to notice he was there. "Linx?" He said softly.

At first, Linx didn't respond in any way, but eventually she opened her two different colored eyes and looked up at Hiro. "Hello Hiro." She smiled softly.

Hiro nodded before sitting down in front of her, "I wanted to ask you about Ghost…"

Linx's two different colored hazel eyes seemed to light up as the edge of her lips curled in interest. "Ah," she nodded a couple of times, "He's an interesting case, to say the least."

Hiro cocked his head slightly to the side and looked at Linx for a minute before speaking, "Can you tell me about him?"

"What do you want to know?"

"Everything you know about him."

"Where to begin..." Linx asked herself for a minute as she thought and then lightly chuckled, "Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop" She reminded herself.

"What?" Hiro asked as he raised an eyebrow at her.

Linx chuckled as her hazel eyes twinkled, "Nothing. It's a quote... Alice in Wonderland." She smirked. "Ghost isn't like the typical boys," she began, "he a special way about him that..." Linx looked down at the ground for a moment as she concentrated.

"Linx?" Hiro asked in concern as he leaned forward and placed his hand on Linx's shoulder.

A flash of bright white light blinded Hiro, and when he opened his eyes again he was surrounded by a world lacking color. The ground was a dull black that looked like ash, and was cracked throughout the land. Trees with no leaves and branches sticking out in every direction were randomly placed throughout the land, and looked as though they were burnt, but had managed to stay alive. The sky was a crimson, blood-red with black clouds filling it. Spread across the land were people who shuffled their feet as they walked with their heads down.

Before Hiro stood a person in a long black robe with a large hood, holding a scythe; much like the grim reaper would. _What the hell is going on!_ Hiro thought as he remained calm on the outside. His dark brown eyes watched as the hooded figure pushed the hood back to reveal black hair with hints of bright red highlights. _Linx?_ Hiro thought as he watched he quickly walk off in what seemed to be a random direction. He slowly followed behind Linx in curiosity and confusion.

Linx crouched down in front of a young girl, who looked exactly like Linx but younger. "Are you alright Grimm?" She asked as she brushed some of the young girl's hair out of her face. "What's wrong?" She asked again as she wiped some of the young girl's tears.

_Grimm?_ Hiro thought and then it hit him. Linx had transported him to the Dead Realm. Hiro felt his body become ridged as he watched the two girls interact. He had heard that they were one in the same, but it wasn't possible for someone to exist as an adult and for their child-form to exist at the same time… And yet Linx did.

He jumped when he heard someone scream out a scream that made his flesh crawl and his stomach churn. He looked over to his side and saw a woman with her head held to the sky screaming. He watched her in pain and studied her face, which was terrified and sad. Even though she wasn't saying anything, he knew why she died and why she was screaming; her scream told her story.

The woman had lost her child at birth and then committed suicide because of it. Hiro felt his heart sink as he watched the woman lower her head and continue walking as though she had just told the story of her death. Her arms were wrapped around her stomach as she shuffled her bare feet through the ash ground.

"Who is that?" Grimm whispered to Linx as she pointed timidly at Hiro, who was busy staring at the woman in pain.

Linx looked over her shoulder and gasped in surprise as she saw Hiro. "I must have transported him when you called…" She said as she stood up, and felt Grimm hide behind her legs. Linx glanced down at Grimm for a second before walking towards Hiro. "It's sad isn't it?" She asked as she stood behind him.

Hiro slightly jumped as he turned around and face Linx, "Um, yes. Very." He sighed before he noticed a little head peaking behind Linx's robe. _That must be Grimm…_

Linx followed Hiro's gaze and then smiled, "This is Grimm." She said as she stepped to the side. "Grimm this is Hiro." Once the little girl was out in the open, she no longer seemed afraid. She actually seemed confident and excited to meet Hiro.

Hiro extended his hand to the small girl, "Pleasure to meet you."

Grimm carefully took Hiro's hand, but she didn't shake it. She wrapped her small fingers around it and slightly pulled him closer towards her. Hiro glanced at Linx, who was staring at Grimm in a peculiar way, before he crouched down to Grimm's height.

"I've been waiting to meet you," She smiled.

"You have?" Hiro asked with a soft smile.

"You have?" Linx asked in confusion.

Grimm looked at Linx and nodded with a smile, as if Linx would understand, and she did. "I have." Grimm turned her attention back to Hiro and wrapped her arms around his neck to give him a hug.

At first, Hiro was taken back by the young girl's gestures, but he wrapped his large arms around her small body softly and felt a feeling of content and security wash over him. It was feeling he hadn't felt in years and didn't realize until that moment, that he missed that feeling. He closed his dark brown eyes as he tried to remember what used to give him that feeling. He had blocked out his feeling for so long that he had forgotten some of them were even there.

"There probably isn't any meaning to life, but you know, there's always something interesting you could find along the way." Grimm whispered in his ear softly before she slowly let go of Hiro.

Hiro's brown eyes flashed opened in an instant as his heart sank. He looked at Grimm in disbelief before slowly standing up again. _Momma?_ He thought as he remembered where his feeling originated from: his mother.

He stared at Grimm in utter shock. It had been so long since he had thought about his mother. He prayed to her every morning, but he purposely forgot her memory to control his emotions. However, in that instant he remembered her scent, her voice, her laughter, but most importantly, her wisdom.

She had always said that to him when he used to question life as a child. She always said it in relation to having him as her son. He was her life, and she was his, so when she died he lost all meaning except to live for her sake.

Hiro tore his eyes away from the small child and looked at Linx, "Please take me back." He said calmly.

Linx nodded slightly before tapping Hiro's shoulder with the back of her scythe. Hiro began to glow a brilliant red before breaking up into little orbs that floated up into the darkness of the sky. Both Linx and Grimm's eyes followed the orbs until the last one disappeared.

"He's hiding something from his past…" Grimm said softly, which made Linx look down at her in confusion.

"What?"

"He's hiding something." Grimm repeated as she looked over at Linx.


	30. Loneliness Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 29: Loneliness Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

The soft murmur of the monitors echoed in the empty medical lab, as Jamal (Cannon) paced back and forth around the hospital bed of Aurora (Satine). He checked the monitors over and over again and reviewed her charts. Occasionally, he would look up at her to see if she moved, but of course she hadn't.

Most of the time, the medical area of technician lab was quite except for the symphony of clattering and banging that Jamal conducted while working. It had became a normal routine for him to listen to his own cacophony, because it was the only thing that kept him from going insane in the silence. It was true, Jamal loved what he did and being locked away in the lab for days on end, but he still liked human interaction, which he got little of but by choice.

He stood next to Aurora's bedside and examined her color and pupils, when the large doors to the lab opened with a decompression noise. Dawn (Dreamer) and Seth (Frostbite) walked in and quickly noticed Jamal standing by a medical bed.

"What happened?" Dawn asked as she jogged ahead of Seth and to the bedside. Her dark brown eyes looked in concern at Aurora, "Aurora…" She whispered as she looked at the frail woman.

Seth walked up behind Dawn and looked at Jamal, "What happened?"

Jamal flipped the top to the charts back over them and clipped them to Aurora's bedside, "Aurora is too skinny for her own good, to be honest." He cleared his throat momentarily, "So she fainted and was brought to me."

Seth rolled his blue eyes before quietly turning and walking towards the door, which made Dawn turn around, "Seth?"

He stopped, but didn't turn around, "Yeah?"

"Are you alright?"

"Fine." He said bluntly before walking out of the medical area.

Dawn stared at the closed steel doors for a moment before turning back around to Jamal, "What's wrong with him?"

"Who knows," Jamal shrugged as he checked Aurora's IV once again before looking back at Dawn, "So what brings you down here?"

Dawn looked up from Aurora and opened her mouth to say something but slowly closed it, "I forgot." She sighed as she looked absentmindedly away from the medical bed and then back at Jamal, "I remember!" She shouted in excitement.

"Woah there," Jamal hushed, "You have to keep your voice down in front of a patient." He chuckled as he ushered Dawn away from Aurora, "Even though she may be unconscious, she can still hear things and it can effect her."

Dawn stared up Jamal and then looked back at Aurora for a moment, "Oops," she quietly said as a soft shade of red stained her cheeks, "Sorry."

"It's alright," Jamal softly smiled, "So what is it that brings you here?"

"I'm trying to look for Twista," Damn blurted out, "I was told that if anyone knew where to find her it would be you…"

Jamal nodded his head a couple times, "As much as I wish that I could say that I knew where to find Saria, I have no idea. She's just as illusive to me as she is to everyone else."

"Did she say when she might be back?" Dawn asked in hopes.

"Saria comes and goes as she pleases. No one really knows when she'll show up again or when she'll leave… It's as thought she doesn't like being in more than one place at a time."

Dawn's shoulders sunk in disappointment, "Oh," She sighed, "Thanks anyway." She quietly turned away from Jamal and began to walk out of the Medical area.

"If I see her again, I'll let her know you're looking for her."

"Thanks." Dawn whispered.

The dull lights of the library lit each of the study tables up, while the rain outside tapped lightly against the large windows. The entire library was quietly hushed with whispers and the occasional turning of pages from the students working or studying in the library. In the back section of the library, Noah (Clutch) and Tonya (Counterstrike) were sitting at a small table with books spread out in front of them.

Noah got up from the table to put back a book and Tonya quickly closed a book and slid it over to him, "Put this one back while you're at it." She said in her British accent without looking up from her notebook, which she was busy writing in.

"Why don't you get up off your butt and put it away?" Noah asked as he stared down at her.

"Because you're already getting up. I'm busy."

Noah leaned over and looked at her notebook, "Busy doodling?"

Tonya looked up at Noah with her green eyes, "Just put it back."

Noah sighed and grabbed her book. He disappeared into the endless bookshelves among the library, leaving Tonya to the table by herself. _He's acting strange._ Tonya thought. _All day he's been giving into our arguments, which before he seemed to love getting into._

Noah returned with another book and sat down at the table. He didn't say anything to Tonya as he began flipping through the pages.

"Alright." Tonya said as she slid her notebook out of her way and looked at Noah. "What's wrong with you?" She asked as she took down her black dreadlocked hair and then put it back into a ponytail once again.

"What do you mean?" He asked, without looking up at her.

She slid his notebook out from underneath him to force him to look at her, "Every argument we've had you've given into. What's up with you?"

Noah sighed and looked up at Tonya, "I just want to get this project done, and Sam wouldn't want us fighting." He grab his notebook back and began to work again.

Tonya raised her pierced eyebrow at Noah for a moment, "It's a little strange that you're doing in for Sam…" She said as if implying something. "I mean, you two seem to fight just as much or more than you and I do."

Noah sighed in frustration and quit writing. He looked up at Tonya with his grey-blue eyes, "I'm doing it for her so she won't have any stress when she comes back, because otherwise, she'll take it out on me." He stared at her as if waiting for her to ask another question or make another witty comment.

Tonya paused for a moment and then smirked, "Pretty clever way protecting your arse." She chuckled and then returned to her work.

Noah lowered his head to continue his work, and then after a couple of minutes spoke, "Thanks." He smirked.


	31. There's No Place Like Home

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 30: There's No Place Like Home

Hiro tightened his leather jacket around his body as he looked over a large warehouse-looking building in New York City. _This is it..._ He thought quietly as he crossed the street and began walking closer to the warehouse. His brown eyes watched as people banged against the large steel door, said something to whomever was behind the door and then were let it or turned away. He took a calmly breath in before walking up to the large steel door.

**BAM BAM BAM**

He took a step back for a moment before a small door slid open. Two piercing blue eyes stared back at him without saying anything. "I'm here to see Sam." Hiro said confidently.

The small door slid shut and there was no response. Hiro looked around him for a moment and then knocked against the door again. Once again, the small door slid open and the same piercing blue eyes stared at him, "What?" A man's voice huffed.

"Where's Sam?" Hiro huffed and then the small door slid shut again. "Damnit." He sighed in frustration.

"You're looking for Sam?" A voice said calmly from a side alley just as Hiro was about to use his power to remove the door.

Hiro turned towards the voice and saw a man walk from the alley with dark brown hair and green eyes. "Yes, I am. Do you know where she is?"

"Of course I do. I'm her brother," James said calmly. "Now who are you?"

"Hiro. I'm from Xavier's."

James looked Hiro over once before cocking his head to the side. "Prove it."

Hiro sighed and undid his leather jacket to pull to the side. On the breast side of his shirt, a large yellow X was embroidered on his shirt. "Where is she?"

"She's at the cemetery." James sighed, "It's not far from here."

"I know where it is." Hiro nodded softly before turning and walking away.

"Hiro?" James asked, which made Hiro turn around, "Are you here to take her back?"

"You should know better than anyone, no one can make Sam do anything."

James chuckled lightly, "True... Good luck." James nodded before turning back down the dark side alley and disappearing.

Hiro stayed for a minute staring into the darkness of the side alley with his brown eyes, before turning away and walking in the direction of the cemetery.

The cool air swept over the cemetery and over Sam as she was crouched in front of Adam's tombstone. Her fingers carefully traced the engraved letters on the cold stone and sent shivers up her spine. It never seemed real to her no matter how many times she traced the stone. The letters were beginning to wear down from Sam tracing it so many times. She never wanted to believe it was real.

"Do you always get dressed up for him?" Hiro said respectfully behind Sam.

Sam glanced over her should at Hiro, before slowly standing up and turning around to face him. "Every time." She said coldly.

"How'd he die?"

"He was murdered." Sam said as she felt her blood begin to boil as memories played over and over in her head again.

"How do you know that?"

Sam huffed, "What's with the twenty questions Hiro?" She gave a sarcastic laugh and then shook her head. "I know because he was shot in the back of the head in front of me and James." She said as she pushed past Hiro and began walking towards her bike. "I don't know why you're asking. You don't care. That's not why you're here." She shouted over her shoulder as she wrapped her arms around herself, even though she wasn't cold.

Hiro's brown eyes stared down at the tombstone for a moment at the bundle of red roses contrasted against the grey of the tombstone. Something about that image haunted Hiro and made it so that he couldn't turn his eyes away from it.

The roar of Sam's bike echoed over the cemetery, and made Hiro tear his eyes from the tombstone. He ran over to Sam bike as fast as he could, "Sam I came here to see if you're coming home?"

Sam held her black helmet in her hands for a minute and stared at Hiro, "I am home."

Hiro lowered his head for a moment and then looked back up at Sam, "I understand." He sighed and stepped away from her bike. "We'll miss you."

Sam looked down at her helmet in her hands and felt a strange sense of loneliness. She quietly slid her helmet on and flipped up her visor to look over at Hiro for a moment. Her green eyes stared into his brown eyes and she spoke softly, "Tell him… I'm sorry." She sighed as she flipped her visor down quickly and took off through the cemetery.

Hiro watched her as dust kicked up into the air behind her and sighed. "He will be too."

Sam pulled up to the warehouse and knocked against the large steel door. The small door opened again and the same piercing blue eyes that met Hiro stared at Sam. "Let me in." Sam sighed.

"Who are you?" The voice asked.

"Are you serious?" Sam sarcastically laughed. "I'm Sam; James' little sister."

"She hasn't lived here for years." The small door slammed shut.

Sam felt her heart break as she stared at the door for a moment. She banged against the door again and glared at the blue eyes. "Open the damn door!"

"No."

"Get James then." _I can't believe this is happening… This is supposed to be my home…_

The small door shut again and then reopened, "Yeah that's her." James said after looking at Sam. The large steel door opened up and Sam drove her bike inside. She glared at James and the owner of the blue eyes before parking her bike. _This place isn't my home anymore…_

"You got a package Kit." James said as he tossed her a package.

Sam caught it and stared at it for a moment. _How did someone know I was going to be here?_ She thought as she opened it. It was a black video tape with no markings on it and no note was attached to it. "James do you have a TV?"

"Yeah, just passed the bike area."

Sam slowly rode her bike into the bike area and looked around for a TV. She finally found a small one in the corner of the garage were no one was around. She quietly put the video tape into the TV before sitting before it. The soft glow of the television set danced in the darkness of the garage as Sam's whole world came crashing down.

Hiro walked through the mansion in silence as he contemplated how he was going to tell Noah that Sam wasn't coming back to the mansion. _She has chosen her home._ He thought quietly as he walked into the library; it was his favorite place in the mansion.

He quietly walked through the aisles of bookshelves until his brown eyes fell upon a lone girl in the back of the library researching one of the member files. As he walked closer, he recognized her to be Linx. _What is she doing?_

"Hello Hiro." Linx said quietly without even looking up at him.

"Um, hello Linx." He said as he sat down next to her.

"I haven't seen you around here lately…"

"I went to go see Sam at her gang's house." He sighed.

"I'm assuming that didn't go so well."

"To say the least." His brown eyes looked down at the member profile she was looking at and saw that it was him. He began to feel anxious for a moment before looking up at Linx, "Um, Linx?"

"Yes?"

Just as Hiro was about to ask Linx why she was researching him, an alarm blared over the speaker system and trembled throughout the library. Both Linx and Hiro slightly jumped at it before standing up.

"Come on." Linx shouted over the alarm before taking off running out of the library, while Hiro stayed behind for a moment. He stared down at the profile for a moment and saw parts were highlighted throughout the book. He looked back at Linx just as she disappeared behind the library doors. He took a deep breath in and then took off running after her.

_What does she want?_


	32. A Cure Against Betrayal

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 31: A Cure Against Betrayal

Chaos stood in a nearby alley as Rashid's (Sonic) brown eyes stared at the heavily guarded warehouse before he turned back around to face his team. "That's it." He said coldly. "We need to get in there."

"How are we gonna do it?" Ashley (Rush) asked in his Texas accent.

Rashad turned around and looked at the facility for a moment and surveyed everything around it. "I've been watching it for a couple of days now. It's the night shift." He paused and looked back at his team. "Two guards in the two front towers, two guards at the gates, two at the doors themselves, and then there's only three scientist working inside on the night shift." He surveyed his team and then slowly nodded his head. "Aphrodite you're going to go out first and seduce the gate guards and get them to open the gates. Shocker I need you to take care of the tower guards, and Diamond and Rush take out the door guards. Once inside we're sending Miracle in by herself, in which Miracle I need you to kill the scientist."

Mary-Lynn glanced over at Natalie and then looked at Rashad, "But Rashad-"

"Sonic." Rashad corrected her.

"Sonic," She sighed. "What if there's guards inside. They'll kill Natalie, Ah mean Miracle." She said in her thick southern accent.

"There's no one else inside." Rashad reassured.

"But what if there is?"

"Risk we're taking."

Natalie's mouth fell open for a minute, "If you gamble me and lose me, you're screwed." She reminded him in her thick British accent.

Rashad turned and looked at Natalie for a minute, "I like to gamble, now quit bitching and let's go."

"Wait," Lucas said in his thick Scottish accent, "Why are we do this?"

Rashad turned around and looked at Lucas in annoyance, "Because these scientist are creating a "cure" for mutants. If we don't stop them, they'll destroy us all. Is that a good enough reason for you?"

The whole team fell silent as they felt their hearts sink in fear. A "cure" to erase all mutants. It had been rumored for years to be in development, but nothing had come of it. However, now they truly were threatened. For the first time in their lives, they were threatened in never existing as they did. Chaos looked around at one another as if it was the last time they would see one another. The moment played out in slow motion as they felt their hearts grow heavy at the thought of losing one another. The were the only family that any of them knew.

"Let's go," Rashad said softly as he looked around at the only family and friends he had ever had in his life. Ever since he ran away from his family and brother to become someone great, he had never known a family until Chaos was formed. "Darwin once stated that only the strong are meant to survive, and they'll survive through mutation," his brown eyes looked around at everyone, "let's fight for our kind to survive." Everyone looked around at each other for a moment and nodded to one another.

Aphrodite (Mary-Lynn) flipped her curled blonde hair over her shoulder and calmly walked towards the gate. Her clear stiletto heels clicked against the cement as she walked, which drew the guards attention. They both pointed their guns at her, but she confidently kept walking towards them. Her shredded sleeves, which faded from white to a deep purple, swayed from side to side with her until she stopped in front of the guards.

"This is a restricted area," one of the guards said as he steadied his gun.

Aphrodite sighed, as her body began to produce an undetectable alluring scent that began to seduce the two gate guards, "Ah'm here to see mah papa; he's a scientist here."

"No one is allowed in," the other guard said as he felt himself begin to feel a sense of euphoria as he looked upon Aphrodite.

"Please?" She asked sweetly as she released more pheromones to seduce the guards.

"Alright." One of them said as he held the button in his hand, "but only if you give us a thank you kiss."

Aphrodite smirked, "Ah don't think ya'd like mah to do that. Ah've been told mah kiss is deadly."

"We'll take that risk darling."

"If ya insist," She shrugged as she walked over to one of the guards and softly kissed his lips with her silky lips slowly before walking over to the other guard, who had pressed the button to open the gate. As the gate slowly began to open, the guards began to choke and grab at their throats. Their guns hit the ground as they both fell to their knees and Aphrodite stood in front of the open gate.

Shocker (Lucas), Rush (Ashley) and Diamond (Karen) all took off running towards Aphrodite as she stood there helpless, while Miracle (Natalie) and Sonic (Rashad) walked slowly behind the three running members, watching as the plan unfolded before their eyes. A spotlight from the watch towers searched the ground for Aphrodite as she felt her heart begin to race when the spot light settled on her, and yet nothing had happened. She heard the machine guns cock as the laser sights fell on her heart, while she stood there.

Diamond and Rush grabbed Aphrodite by the arms as they ran passed her and made her run along side of them, just as the machine guns echoed in the darkness of the night. Shocker walked up to the metal fence and wrapped his fingers are the intertwined bars. He closed his brown eyes and felt his body build, before he opened his eyes, which sent an electrical wave throughout the fence and up to the metal watch towers. He heard the gasping as the electrical impulses raged throughout the defenseless men's bodies before falling to the ground of the watch tower. He turned and walked towards the gate as it was closing to walk along side Sonic and Miracle.

Aphrodite fell behind Diamond and Rush to walk with the others as they all looked on as Diamond and Rush worked. Diamond looked over at Rush and nodded as his green eyes sparkled in delight. Rush put his palms against one another and then turned them outward towards the guards at the door. A wave of water manifested from his hands as looked as though a tidal wave appeared out of his hands. Diamond placed her hands on top of Rush's hand and closed her blue eyes. She felt her body manipulating some of the water particles into diamond shards that shot out with the water.

The loud crash of the wave against the steel metal door made everyone smirk, and then when the diamonds struck they all knew it was over then. Both Diamond and Rush closed their hands as the other member joined them by their side. Everyone glanced around at one another before they all turned and looked at Sonic and Miracle, who were slowly walking towards the steel door in which the guards bloody bodies were pinned to.

Sonic placed his hands against the steel door and looked over at Miracle. "The rest is up to you."

Miracle straightened her posture and nodded, "I know. I won't let you down." She said in her thick British accent.

Sonic nodded and looked back at the door. He felt his hands began to grow warm and then the door began to glow a brilliant red. In one quick movement, he pulled his hands off the door, balled them into a fist, and slammed them against the door, which made it explode. As the dust filled the large warehouse looking building, Miracle ran inside and searched frantically for the scientist. Her heart pounded as for the first time in her life she truly felt threatened by at virus.

From the shadows of the side of the warehouse, a man dressed in all black rose up from the darkness of the shadows. The dark pair of sunglasses slightly sparkled in the darkness as he walked towards a window and watched on as Chaos walked into the warehouse full of dust and debris.

Shadow Runner stood in the shadows as he watched his fellow teammates slaughter the innocent, unarmed scientists. His dark green eyes flinched from behind his dark sunglasses as he watched on. _This isn't the work I wanted to be doing…_

The large projection room was filled with the members of X², who were quietly talking amongst themselves.

"Why are we here?" Grace asked Sean as she leaned over towards him.

"I don't know." Sean shrugged as he tried to intertwine his fingers in hers, but she softly moved her hand away from his. He raised an eyebrow at her behavior, but decided that it wasn't the time to question it.

"There has to be something going on if there's been two alarms so close to one another," Jazmine said as she leaned over to Noah.

"It's probably Chaos again." Noah sighed in disgust as he looked around at everyone.

"Probably," Jazmine rolled her greenish-brown eyes.

Hiro quietly opened the large wooden doors to the projection room and his brown eyes caught sight of Linx, who was sitting next to Hecate whispering to each other, and then he sat down.

"Good," the mechanical voice of Cerebro echoed over the projection room, "you're all here." Everyone in the room settled down and began to whisper among themselves as quiet as possible.

"Why is Cerebro doing the briefing?" Grace asked Sean as she glanced out of the corner of her green eyes at him

"I don't know," he shrugged, "usually Jamal does it."

"Jamal is tending to Aurora." Seth said as he leaned forward to them.

"What happened?" Grace asked as she turned around.

"She collapsed." He sighed before leaning back.

"As you all may have guessed, there has been a break-in. You may have also guessed it was Chaos-" There were sighs among the students at the name of Chaos, "-Now, now. I know, I know. Anyway, I want you all to suit up and get out there. The car has been programmed where to go, so that Sean and Grace can debrief you all on the way there. Dismissed." Cerebro clicked off the speaker, to leave Sean in charge.

Sean stood up and turned to address everyone in the projection room, "Alright, you guys heard Cerebro," he said in his thick Australian accent, "suit up." His brown eyes looked out around at everyone as they got up to suit up for attack and sighed.

Everyone got up and began to file out of the projection room in order to go get ready. Noah held the door for everyone quietly as he watched everyone disappear through the large wooden doors. After everyone had walked out, he paused for a minute to look around as if someone was supposed to still walk out with him. Everyone could feel the difference when people weren't there, and with Sam, Aurora and Jamal not being there it was a big difference. Noah quietly turned and walked out of the projection room, and the large door quietly shut to the empty room.

In the dressing room everyone was at his or her lockers quickly changing in order to leave for the mission.

Sean glanced over at Grace as he finished zipping up the back of his uniform, which was a wetsuit that was all black except for the arms and legs, which were dark blue. Grace's fingers buckled the silver buckles to her mid-shin black boots before buckling her belt that had a X on the belt of her black bodysuit with orange flames going up the sleeves. She slid her hands through the dark brown leather fingerless gloves. Her green eyes glanced over at Sean before looking away and walking towards the garage.

Hecate pulled her long black trench coat of her black leather pants and dark violet tube top before buckling her thick black belt with a silver X on it onto her hip. She put one of her feet up on the bench that Linx was sitting on in order to strap up her black army boots. "What's wrong?"

Link looked up from fiddling with the red X buckle on her thick black belt, "I'm thinking of what Orion said."

Hecate violently tied off her army boot and sighed, "Who cares what he said? It's Orion after all. How reliable is he?"

Linx sighed and stood up to smooth out her black catsuit with a red X on the right breast side. "There was something in his tone Hecate. I know you sensed it like I did."

Hecate set her foot down, "Ignore it. The team needs us Linx." Seth finished pulling his black shirt over his body and glanced on at Linx and noticed her fiddling with her belt again. He quietly walked towards them. "Watch out. Here comes Seth again." Hecate whispered to Linx and walked away.

Linx looked up at Seth with her two different colored hazel eyes and softly smiled, "Hello Seth."

"You alright?"

"I'm fine."

Hiro glanced over at Link while Seth was talking to her with his brown eyes while he pulled his long red trench over his black tight shirt and loose-fitting black pants. He tore his eyes away from her and walked away, which made his knee-high boots clicked softly towards the garage.

"You seem upset."

"I have a feeling that I shouldn't be going. That's all." She sighed as she pushed her flipped out black hair with red highlights underneath behind her shoulder.

Seth softly placed a hand on Linx's shoulder, which made her look at it and then back into his blue eyes, "I won't let anything happen to you."

Link softly smiled, "I'm not afraid to die." She said comfortably. Her different colored hazel eyes looked around at her only family she's known and then nodded. _But I am afraid of losing them._ She quietly walked passed Seth towards the garage, as he soon followed behind her.

"Come on Dawn," Seth said as he walked passed Dawn.

"Coming," Dawn said as she tightened the silver armbands around her forearms and followed Seth out towards the garage. She was dressed in a black capris and a long-sleeved shirt with her shoulders showing. As she walked through the door she placed her mouth mask over her nose and mouth.

Jazmine slid smoothed her black mini skirt out before flipping her dark auburn hair with lighter brown highlights in it over in order to tie her black halter top around her neck. Her greenish-brown eyes glanced over at Gabe for a minute before following Dawn and Seth out of the dressing room. Her black knee-high boots echoed as she disappeared behind the door to the garage.

"Tonya let's go," Gabe said in his thick Georgia accent as he pulled his black fingerless gloves over his hands.

"I'm coming." Tonya said in her thick British accent as she rolled her green eyes. She buckled her blue belt with a X on it and then pulled her blue gloves over her hands.

Gabe rolled his black trench coat, with no sleeves, onto his shoulders so that it partially covered his white tight shirt with a black flame on it. His black hiking boots thumped against the ground as he straddled the bench near Tonya while he waited for her.

"You're so impatient." Tonya sighed while she straightened her black pants that strap around the bottom of her foot so that she could tie her blue ballet shoes on. The blue X on her right thigh of her pants stood out against the black fabric while she tied her shoes.

"You take too long."

"Done." She said as she smoothed her sleeveless turtle-neck over her stomach.

"Finally." Gabe sighed sarcastically.

"Shut up." Tonya said as she smacked Gabe's arm while they walked out.

The only people left in the dressing room was Noah and Lindsey. Noah quietly looked up at Sam's nametag on her locker as he buckled her dark green belt with a silver X on it onto his black pants. He pulled over a dark green wife beater and looked over at Lindsey, "You coming?"

Lindsey pulled her black tank top over her body and looked at Noah for a second, "Yeah. Are you leaving, or are you going to cry over Sam's locker a little more?" She smirked as she buttoned her black pants.

Noah gained his composure and glared at Lindsey for a minute. "I'll see you out there then." He turned and quietly walked out of the dressing room to leave Lindsey to tying her skater shoes onto her feet.

Once she heard the door to the dressing room swing shut she slowly stood up straight and stood in the silence. _Perfect._ She thought as she walked over to the phone and began to slowly dial.

"Hello?" There was a pause before she began to speak again, "It's me. Lindsey… Yes… Of course… I'm calling to warn you that X² is on it's way…" she let out a small chuckle, "Think nothing of it… See you soon, I guess… Goodbye." Lindsay smirked in her thick Australian accent as she set the phone down on it's receiver and walked out of the dressing room to join the others.


	33. Unknown Prayer

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 32: Unknown Prayer

"Jamal?" Cerebro's mechanical voice echoed over the speaker system in the medical wing.

"Yes Cerebro?" Jamal asked as he checked over Aurora's monitors.

"The team has left on a mission," Jamal turned his attention away from the monitors, "Chaos broke into a science lab."

"Thank you Cerebro."

"Yes Jamal." Cerebro clicked off the speaker system.

Jamal set his clipboard on the edge of Satine's bed and closed his brown eyes while his hands were on either side of the clipboard, "Even though everyone in this era has lost faith in you, I haven't," He quietly said to an unknown person listening. "I don't know who you are, what is right and what is wrong, I just believe you. I have faith." He sighed as his fingers curled around the sheets for a minute. "Please keep them safe," he whispered as he opened his eyes to look at Aurora, "and her too."

Grace and Sean stood in front of everyone in the large area in the back of the car with seats for the members to sit on. "Here's the deal," Sean started, "we need to be uniform about who takes who."

"So listen up and listen good," Grace added, "As you know there are certain main members of Chaos: Sonic, Aphrodite, Rush, Diamond, Miracle, and Shocker." As she spoke, holograms of each members of Chaos appeared before X².

"However this time they have two new members," Sean sighed, "Shadow Runner and Sparks."

Hecate and Linx looked at the hologram of Sparks as it appeared in betrayal. "He works for them…" Hecate hissed under her breath to Linx. Linx just stared at him for a minute and felt her heart grow hard at the thought of him working for them. "Linx and I want Sparks." Hecate said bitterly.

"You can't just call who you want," Grace reminded Hecate.

"Give us Sparks," Hecate stared with her deep blue eyes, "we have a score to settle with him."

Linx looked up at Grace and Sean and sighed, "Give us Sparks." She said half-heartedly.

"Fine." Sean nodded. "The detectors of the building have picked up activity from all the members except Shadow Runner, which is good because that's one less person to take care of."

"So here are the teams," Grace quickly said as they approached closer and closer towards the science lab. "Noah, Tonya and Seth are a team and taking Diamond and Shocker. Diamond can manifest diamonds and project them, while Shocker can manipulate electricity."

Tonya smirked, "Can I take the fellow Brit and the other two can take Shocker?"

"That's up to your team." Grace sighed.

Tonya looked over at Noah and Seth, who both shrugged. "Great."

"You'll need these Tonya in order not to be hurt by Diamond's powers," Sean said as he handed her arm cuffs to protect her forearms. Tonya grabbed the metal arm cuffs and strapped them around her forearms quietly.

"Hecate and Gabe will go after Miracle. Miracle can absorb any - and I mean **any** - disease and transfer it to whomever she pleases." Sean said strictly to Hecate and Gabe, who glanced at one another before nodding.

"Linx and Hiro are taking Sonic, who is Chaos' leader. He can send sonic blasts out through his hands."

"Understood." Hiro nodded before glancing over at Linx who had just finished taking a deep breath in with her eyes closed.

Linx opened her eyes and looked at Hecate for a moment, who's dark blue eyes burned with passionate hatred. "Hecate?"

"Yeah?" She sighed.

"I still have a feeling that we should be listening to Sparks."

"What?" Hecate snapped as she looked at Linx, which made her long platinum hair sway. "After betraying us for Chaos, you still want to trust him?"

Linx sighed, "I just have a feeling that we should."

Hecate shook her head and sighed, "Fine. I'll take care of him."

Linx sighed again and closed her different colored eyes for a moment, "I'll help you… Besides, you'll probably tear him to pieces, literally."

Hecate smirked, "I don't think you can stop me from doing that."

Linx smirked back, "I bet I could give you a run for your money."

"We'll see."

Linx nodded her head and glanced over at Hiro for a moment in silence. _What is he hiding?_ She thought quietly, and then tore her stare away from him when he glanced back at her.

"Jazmine you're going to be with me and we're going after Aphrodite," Grace sighed as she walked over to sit by Jazmine.

"And Lindsey and Dawn you two are with me," Sean smiled as he walked over to them. "Unfortunately, Dawn since you're a new member we can't risk having something happen to you so Lindsey will mostly watch out for you, but Lindsey I need your attention also."

"Whatever," Lindsey nodded. "I'm there."

"Good." Sean nodded as he looked over at Tonya who was tightening the straps on the cuffs across from him. "Here," he offered as he struck the cuff guards a couple times to see if they would shift and then tightened them probably.

"Thanks," Tonya nodded as she pulled her black dreadlocked hair back into a ponytail.

"Anytime." Sean nodded with a smile before returning to his seat next to Dawn.


	34. Ghosts Never Rest

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 33: Ghosts Never Rest

As the smoke and debris began to settle within the warehouse, Miracle stood in the middle of the room calmly. The scientist were hunched over the large machines with horrified looks upon their faces. Some of the scientists had splotches covering their bodies, while other looked perfectly fine except for the haunting expression of dying left on their faces.

"Is that all of them?" Sonic asked as he slid one of the scientist off a machine.

"Every single one of them." Miracle smiled proudly. "Told you I wouldn't let you down."

Sonic sat down at a computer and began to typing away as different files began to pop up on the monitor. Aphrodite walked over to Sonic and stood behind him as she watched with her violet eyes as the different files came onto the screen. "Every heard of a mouse suga?" She asked in her thick southern accent.

"I don't like using them." Sonic shrugged.

"Whatever." She shrugged as she walked away to join the other members on the main floor of the warehouse.

"So what exactly are we looking for Sonic?" Shocker asked in his thick Scottish accent.

"**I'm** looking for files, while you are all supposed to be destroying equipment." Sonic smirked.

All the members looked around at one another in confusion and then looked back at Sonic. "But Sonic," Rush stepped forward, "there's a lot of valueable equipment here. Why not take some of the weapon for ourselves?" He asked in his thick Texas accent.

Sonic stopped typing for a minute and then looked up at his teammates, "We're mutants. Why would we need weapons?"

"Just in case." Diamond shrugged.

"Fine. Take whatever you please, and destroy the rest." He waved them off and went back to searching the files.

The light of the television flickered in the darkness of the garage, while Sam sat in the darkness watching a surveillance tape of a strange memory that she had thought she had escaped. She let out a sigh as she stared at the carnage of her teammates fighting Chaos, but it wasn't a recent battle; it was long passed.

Sam's hazel-green eyes stared at the television for a moment and then grew in horror when she saw a pale boy on the screen with solid black eyes. "Ghost…" She gasped as she leaned forward towards the television.

She stared at the image of herself as she was fighting off Rush and completely oblivious to Ghost. She felt her heart shatter with every second the video played as she wanted so badly to yell at herself as though it would help her realize that Ghost was in trouble. He was standing so innocently behind a large rock in fear. He was defenseless. He didn't know how to completely control his powers at that moment, but he was still there. _He shouldn't have been there… I should have spoken up._ She sighed. He was supposed to give X² an upper hand against Chaos. He could have changed the course of mutant kind, and yet he was killed. _He was murdered._ She thought angrily as she watched Lindsey stay near him as he full heartedly trusted her to protect him.

Sam watched as Lindsey turned towards Ghost and then ran off. _What is she doing? She wasn't supposed to leave him._ She thought in a mixture of confusion and anger.

She watched as Caution seemed to be leading Sonic closer and closer towards where Ghost was hiding. She pressed her palms against the screen as she watched Lindsey get pinned against the large rock that Ghost was hiding behind by Sonic. There was no sound on the tape, but Sam didn't need sound. Lindsey face said it all; she bargained for her life to be spared.

Sam leaned closer as she watched Sonic release Lindsey and Ghost's face grow in horror as he tried to run. Even though he had no irises, Sam could still see the horror in his eyes. Lindsay chased him down like a helpless baby gazelle being hunted by a lion. She covered his mouth with her hand and held him still, while Sonic stalked towards him.

Sam was so shocked and betrayed that she couldn't feel anger; she couldn't feel anything.

Her hazel-green eyes grew large in horror as she watched Lindsey hold Ghost's defenseless body against hers, while Sonic quickly slid a piece of broken glass across his small neck. Sonic looked to Lindsey and nodded, before walking away to help his other members. Lindsey held Ghost's body against her for a couple more seconds before letting him fall to his knees.

Sam pressed her palms harder against the screen as she stared at Ghost's dying body. Lindsey just stood over him and stared, heartlessly, as he gasped for breath desperately. Sam felt her heart shatter as she watched him clutching his bleeding throat as if trying to gain air, but failing. His hands slowly slid from his neck onto the pool of blood around his small, frail body. His white skin was stained in the crimson gore of his blood.

The X² car pulled to a stop down the street for the science laboratory, and the back door opened up for everyone to get out of. "Everyone understand the plan?" Sean asked as everyone quietly nodded while they stepped out of the car. "Good." He nodded while leading everyone towards the warehouse with Grace by his side.

Sam watched as Lindsey walked away from her destruction as though nothing had happened, Sam stared in horror and the bloody mess left behind. A cold tear rolled down Sam's cheek as she stared at the small corpse she had once sworn to protect.


	35. Counterstrike Shock

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 34: Counterstrike Shock

X² quietly walked towards the large gaping hole where the large steel doors to the laboratory used to stand. They all stood in an uniform line as they stared at the members of Chaos, who had yet to notice they were there.

Sonic (Rashad) glanced up from the computer screen that faced the gaping hole and smirked, "Look who has finally arrived." The other members of Chaos looked up at X² and they all smirked as they set down the science equipment to prepare to fight.

As if a silent bell rang throughout the laboratory, everyone went off in different directions attacking who they were assigned to attack.

In an instant, both Clutch (Noah) and Frostbite (Seth) turned into their fighting states. Frostbite balled his hands into fists, which made his body transform into a complete state of ice starting from his feet all the way up to the tips of his shaggy dirty blonde hair. The lights of the warehouse sparkled over the edges of his iced body as he created an ice slide to ride towards Shocker (Lucas), who was taking his stance.

"Don't you know water carries electricity?" Shocker laughed as he rubbed his brown gloved hands together and then flicked his wrists out to send a large electrical bolt of lightening to break the slide in one shot.

Noah stomped his right foot down on the ground, which made the ground crack beneath his foot as his skin became thick and grey. When the transformation reached his back the cracking and crumbling of stone echoed as large gargoyle wings sprouts from his shoulder blades. With one large thrust of his large wings, Clutch took flight into the air over Frostbite, who grabbed his feet in order not to fall, but then quickly created another slide to ride.

"Is that the best you got?" Frostbite said in a cocky manner.

"Not even close." Shocker laughed before rubbing his hands together again and then clapping them together. At first a rumble shook the building and then a storm of lightening bolts rained down on Clutch and Frostbite.

The ice slide shattered into a million pieces, which sent Frostbite sliding across the ground towards Shocker. However, Clutch quickly dodged the lightening storm by flying in between the lightening bolts carefully. Shocker rubbed his hands together again as he stared at Frostbite, who was on the ground, with a smirk. _Too easy._ He thought as he stalked closer towards him.

The tip of Clutch's wing was hit by a bolt of lightening, which made his spin out of control towards the ground. _Come on, come on…_ He thought desperately as he balled his body up and fell like a boulder out of the sky into Shocker. Clutch barreled Shocker across the ground of the warehouse and then slowly stood above him when they were done moving. The large gargoyle stared down at Shocker and smirked.

Diamond (Karen) picked up some of the shattered ice slide and quickly transformed the pieces into fresh cut diamond that sparkled in the overhead lights of the warehouse. _Diamonds can cut through stone_. She reminded herself as she throw the diamonds like daggers towards the back of Clutch; using his wings as targets.

Counterstrike (Tonya) jumped down behind Clutch and cross her forearms over one another to block the diamond. Her green eyes twinkled in delight as she stared at Diamond through her crossed arms. Counterstrike slid her arms down slowly to her sides, "You can thank me later," She smirked to Clutch, even though she didn't look at him. She stared at Diamond for a moment before she took off running after her, "Frostbite!" Counterstrike shouted towards him as she was in a dead sprint.

"On it." He smirked as he placed his hands on the ground and soon a sheet of ice covered the ground and spread towards Counterstrike. She slid across the ice sheet and rolled onto her back as she slid closer and closer towards Diamond. Counterstrike placed her knees against her chest and when she reached Diamond she pushed her legs up to kick Diamond in the stomach. She watched as Diamond was pushed into the air before Counterstrike rolled over the sheet of ice and stood up.

Clutch glanced over at Counterstrike and Frostbite, but before he looked back at Shocker, he felt Shocker's leather bound hands against his chest, "Never take your eyes off me." Shocker smugly said in his thick Scottish accent.

The electric shock pushed Clutch backwards and into the air as he felt his whole body surge in an uncontrollable shock. For a moment, he felt his heart stop and felt weightless before his body gained feeling back into it. He fell towards the ground like a boulder and right before he hit the ground his thrust his wings towards the ground and forced himself back into the air. He floated in the air as his large gargoyle wings flapped to keep him afloat as he stared down at Shocker, "I've been playing nice because Sam has some attachment to you… All bets are off." He smirked as he bolted towards the ground at Shocker like a torpedo.

Shocker glanced around and for the first time noticed that Sam wasn't there. Clutch grabbed Shocker by the biceps and pulled him into the air with him. "Where is Sammy?" Shocker smirked as he balled his hands into fists.

"None of your business," Clutch huffed as he through Shocker down towards the ground with all his might.

Shocker stuck his arms out in front of him as shot a blast of lightening out that softened his fall towards the ground. He landed on his knees and looked up at Clutch who was flapping his wings in the air while staring down at him. "Nice try." Shocker smirked.

"Not quite a try." Clutch pointed in front of Shocker, which made Shocker look forward just as Frostbite had shot out a stream of ice towards him.

"Damn," Shocker rolled to the side to just barely miss the stream.

"Counterstrike watch out!" Frostbite shouted as he cut the ice stream.

Counterstrike turned around and looked at the ice stream heading directly, "Shit!" She shouted as she dove out of the way. The side of the stream touched the tip of one of Counterstrike's dreadlocks and iced it over. She hit the ground and looked over at Frostbite in annoyance, "Watch where you're aiming Frosty." She said sarcastically as she felt her body absorb the energy of hitting the ground before she did a pushup to stand up.

Diamond tried to run away from the ice stream, but it hit her arm and quickly froze her hand up to her wrist. She stopped in her tracks and gasped as the freezing cold temperature shocked her system. Her blue eyes slowly looked down at her hand which was trembling under the ice.

"Let me help you that." Counterstrike smirked before throwing a punch with her absorbed energy.

Diamond put her arms up and felt the ice shatter from around her wrist as Counterstrike punched it. She quickly flicked her wrist, grabbed a shatter of ice, transformed it into a diamond, and tried to slash Counterstrike with it. She placed her forearms up to protect her face as she felt the vibration of the diamond scratching down the strange metal of her arm cuffs. Counterstrike pushed back against Diamond with a huff as she stared at her for a moment and then flung her arm out to hit Diamond in the side of the head with her absorbed energy.

Shadow Runner's eyes stared through the window as everyone was attacking everyone. He couldn't understand who was good and who was bad. It all looked terrible from where he was standing.


	36. Fiery Attractions

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 35: Fiery Attractions

Aphrodite (Mary-Lynn) stood coyly in the midst of the Chaos as she stared at Spitfire (Grace) and Hell's Angel (Jazmine). Her violet eyes twinkled with delight while her shredded sleeves waved in the air as if taunting them like a flag. "Are you two just gonna sit there and stare at mah or are ya gonna fight?" She smirked.

Spitfire glanced over at Hell's Angel and gave her a soft nodded. Hell's Angel closed her greenish-brown eyes and rolled her shoulder blades slowly. It seemed as though the shattering of bones echoed throughout the laboratory as two large black angel wings sprouted from her shoulder blades and thick claws grew from her fingernails. She opened her eyes again as her wings stretched into the air.

"Fancy trick," Aphrodite smirked.

Hell's Angel thrust her wings down and quickly took flight into the air as Spitfire took off running towards Aphrodite. Aphrodite took a stance for the impact as she released hormones into the air to make Spitfire envy her. Spitfire quit running towards and placed her forearm over her nose and mouth. "Hell's Angel, she's releasing hormones!" She shouted up to the angel stalking the sky, as she stumbled backwards away from Aphrodite.

"What's the matter darlin'?" Aphrodite smirked as she stalked closer towards Spitfire.

_I won't be able to fight her if she keeps this up…_Spitfire gasped as she tripped over a piece of scientific equipment.

Aphrodite never looked like she was much of a fighter, and she truly wasn't. She knew a few moves, but otherwise she relied on her powers. She didn't need to rely on anything else. They created a force field around her that no one could penetrate, and when in doubt she could seduce someone with her powers so that they would protect her.

"Spitfire!" Hell's Angel shouted down as she dove down to her. She held her hand out for Spitfire, who grabbed her wrist and was lifted back into the air.

"Thanks," Spitfire gasped as she shook her head to get rid of the hormones.

"Well that's no fun if yall are up there." Aphrodite pretended to pout. "Ah guess Ah'll have to get ya down, huh?" She smirked as she closed her violet eyes and took a deep breath in. She opened her eyes and sent a deep breath out, which released a high dose of hormones into the air in Hell's Angel and Spitfire's direction.

Hell's Angel darted to the side of the hormones and then took a deep breath in. When she released it a whirlwind of fire spun down towards Aphrodite, who quickly ran away. Hell's Angel lowered the longer she kept her fire breath going and then finally stopped. "I can't keep it up." She sighed.

"It's alright. Drop me here." Spitfire smirked, "I can take it from here."

Hell's Angel let go off of Spitfire's wrist and she dropped to the ground, while Hell's Angel took flight higher into the sky once again. Spitfire hit the ground softly in a crouching position before she flipped her black hair with red tipped bangs and orange tipped hair behind her. She stared at Aphrodite and stared at the fire that separated them. Spitfire felt a burning fire rise in her body as her green eyes focused on the flames that danced before her. Slowly the fire began to creep closer and closer towards Aphrodite, but it shot out after her.

Aphrodite took off running in her clear stiletto heels as fast as she could, until she stopped because Hell's Angel was standing in front of her. _Perfect._ Aphrodite smirked as she released a hormone into the air.

Hell's Angel felt a warmth wash over her as her hatred for Aphrodite melted away. Her greenish-brown eyes softened at the sight of Aphrodite and then her wings relaxed behind her.

"Take me into the air." Aphrodite said coyly.

Hell's Angel nodded her head slowly before extending her hand to Aphrodite, who took it and then in one thrust of her wings they were airborne.

_What the hell is Hell's Angel doing?!_ Spitfire gasped as she stared up into air where Hell's Angel was flapping her wings, while Aphrodite dangled from her hand with a smirk. "Oh no…" Spitfire sighed. _Aphrodite got too close. Damnit!_

"Take me down." Aphrodite nodded and in an instant Hell's Angel followed her orders as if hypnotized into it. Hell's Angel curbed her wings in and quickly fell from the sky towards Spitfire like a bullet.

Aphrodite felt the rush of wind whip through her perfectly curled blonde hair as she fell closer and closer towards Spitfire. _Any second now and my hormones will ut her under my spell too._ She smirked as she locked her violet colored eyes with Spitfire's eyes.

Spitfire stared at the southern bell as she descended upon her like a black raven. She took a deep breath in as her heart rate began to climb while her green eyes stared at her teammate who had quickly turned to her enemy. She slid her feet into a position for impact as she tried to quickly think of something.

Her green eyes glanced to her side as she saw the fire that Hell's Angel had created for Spitfire slowly dying. _It's my only chance…_She closed her eyes and concentrated on the fire, which quickly spread back towards Spitfire. Soon a circle of fire surrounded her and blazed into the air to protect her.

Hell's Angel pulled up back into the air to avoid the fire as she hovered above Spitfire with Aphrodite dangling from her wrist. Her large black wings flapped over and over again as she struggled to keep both her and Aphrodite airborne.

"Is that the best you got?" Aphrodite smirked at Spitfire, "Why not actually fight?"

"Like you are?" Spitfire said in a challenging tone as the fire around her died down.

"Burn her." Aphrodite barked. Hell's Angel nodded as she took a deep breath in and began to feel the burning sensation in her lungs.

Spitfire closed her eyes for a moment and concentrated, which made all the flames pile in front of her. She slowly crouched down on the ground and placed her fingerless gloved hands against the warm ground; the fire crackled against her bare skin, but it didn't effect her. She opened her green eyes and stared through the dancing flames at Aphrodite and Hell's Angel. _Sorry Hell's Angel…_

The flames shot up into the air towards Hell's Angel and Aphrodite. Aphrodite screamed, "Move! MOVE!"

Hell's Angel tried to, but ended up letting go of Aphrodite and just barely missing the flames. Her head became light when she was away from Aphrodite as she swayed from side to side in the air. Her greenish-brown eyes quickly looked over to her right and saw that the tips of some of her black feathers were burning. "Damnit Spitfire!" She yelled as she pulled her right wing into her without thinking. As she quickly put out the fire on her feathers, she plummeted towards the ground.

"Sorry, I had no choice!" Spitfire shrugged. "Take flight!" She screamed when she saw Hell's Angel fall towards the ground closer to Aphrodite.

Hell's Angel felt the strange sensation wash over her body again that she had felt before when Aphrodite first took control over her with her powers. She tucked her wings into her body and then with one thrust, her black wings spread out and raised her up into the air once again. She gracefully flew higher and higher towards the black ceiling like a mystical bird dance along the wind currents.

She turned around and looked down at the carnage that was unfolding in the laboratory warehouse and sighed. _It shouldn't be this way…_

Aphrodite was crouched on the ground to stabilize herself from the fall before she flipped her perfectly curled blonde hair over her head to look ahead of her. Her violet colored eyes stared ahead at Spitfire, who had stepped through the dancing flames slowly. Aphrodite slowly stood up with a smirk on her face as she watched Spitfire walk closer towards her. _That's it… Here kitty kitty…_

Spitfire's green eyes stared ahead at the southern bell in hatred before stopping just out of Aphrodite's hormone reach. _I won't be one of your puppets._ She took a deep breath in as she sharply pulled on the edge of her brown fingerless leather gloves to make them tighter on her hands. _I just need one shot on her._ Her green eyes never broke away from Aphrodite's eyes, even though she could still see Hell's Angel hovering in the rafters above her.

Spitfire nodded and then took off running towards Aphrodite. _I hope this works._ She slid across the ground towards Aphrodite, who smirked down at her. "Keep smiling sweetheart." Spitfire smirked as she kicked up into Aphrodite's stomach so that she flew up into the air.

Quickly Hell's Angel dove in the air down to Aphrodite, and grabbed her arms while she was midair. "This is for controlling me." She grunted as she swooped back up into the air. Her thick claws dung into the soft skin of Aphrodite and drew blood as she flew into the air.

"Release her!" Spitfire shouted. _If you keep her too long she'll do it again._

"Not yet!" Hell's Angel snarled as she stopped just under the rafters and looked at Aphrodite. "You're pathetic." She threw Aphrodite towards the ground as hard as she possibly could. Aphrodite's hormones had begun to take affect over Hell's Angel, but luckily she released her in time.

Spitfire slowly stood up as her green eyes watched the southern bell quickly free fall towards the ground. She wiped the dust off of her black pants as she walked towards the other side of the room; she could care less if she landed on her feet or not.

Aphrodite screamed as she fell closer and closer to the cement ground. Her powers couldn't save her now. _I'm too beautiful to die now._ She thought in panic.

Rush (Ashley) looked over as Aphrodite was moments from hitting the ground and held his hand out in front of him. A wave of water shot out and seemed to break her fall and lower her safely to the ground.

Aphrodite slowly stood up from the puddle of water around her and shook her arms out to try to knock the water from her. "Thanks suga." She nodded to Rush, "but next time try not to get mah so wet." She smirked and turned and stalked off towards Spitfire. "Ah ain't done with ya." Aphrodite grunted as she stood behind Spitfire and released a large amount of hormones towards her.

Spitfire turned around and was just about to strike Aphrodite across the cheek with her fist but her hand fell limp to her side. She stood in front of Aphrodite, helplessly as she stared at her, waiting for her command.

"Kill her." Aphrodite smirked as she pointed up at Hell's Angel.

"I can't."

"Why not?!" Aphrodite shouted.

"I need fire first."

"Damnit!" She stomped her heel on the cement. "Then wait right here." Aphrodite looked around for a couple minutes and then saw a metal pole laying nearby. She walked over to it and then stalked back over towards Spitfire. "Can ya harpoon her down or somethin'?"

Spitfire looked at the pool for a moment and then up at Hell's Angel. "She's too faraway."

"Ya are no use to mah!" Aphrodite shouted as she held the pole in her soft hands and swung at Spitfire's head, while Spitfire stood there helpless awaiting the blow. The pole stuck, but due to Aphrodite's poor aim, she ended up striking Spitfire in the shoulder instead. Spitfire fell to the ground at the same time that Aphrodite dropped the pole and started to walk away. _At least maybe Ah broke somethin'._

Hell's Angel watched from the distance of the air and when she watched in horror as Aphrodite struck Spitfire, she gasped. _Grace!_ She quickly dove down and landed on her feet so that she was running towards Spitfire. She crouched down next to her and looked at her team leader, who was still in a trace. "Spitfire? Can you hear me?"

Spitfire blinked her green eyes a couple times and then grabbed her burning shoulder. She gasped in pain as she looked up at Hell's Angel and was breathing heavy. The pain began to settle within her system as she stared at Hell's Angel for a moment. "Where is she?" She gasped.

"Walking away." Hell's Angel said as she helped Spitfire to her feet and nodded in the direction in which Aphrodite was walking in.

"Blow some fire into my hand."

"What?"

"Trust me."

"Alright." Hell's Angel took a deep breath in and felt the tiny twinge of burning sensation in her lungs before lightly blowing fire onto Spitfire's good hand.

Spitfire walked towards Aphrodite with the glowing ember in her hands. She paused a couple feet away from her and the ember in her hand raged into a burning flame as she pulled back and then threw it directly at Aphrodite.

Aphrodite turned around and watched as the flame spun towards her, but then a shot of water blocked the fireball from hitting Aphrodite. Her violet colored eyes looked over in the direction of the water and saw Ashley standing there with a smirk on his face. "Much betta suga." She smirked.


	37. True Enemies Revealed

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 36: True Enemies Revealed

The soft ringing of the receiver echoed in her mind as she held the cold phone to her ear. Her face was stained in tears, even though she was no longer crying; she hadn't noticed that she had even begun.

The phone within the medical laboratory rang quietly throughout the large laboratory. Jamal jogged over and picked up the phone, "Hello?" There was silence at first. "Hello?" He asked again.

"Jamal?" Sam asked from the other end.

"Sam?" Jamal asked in surprise.

"Is Caution there?"

"You mean Lyndsey?"

Sam closed her green eyes as she heard that name and sighed, "Yes. Her."

"No. The team is on a mission right now."

Sam leaned against the desk for a moment, "Where are they?" She sighed as she leaned across the room and grabbed her black helmet.

"Chaos is at it again." Jamal chuckled.

"Jamal," She paused for a moment, "I don't care who is there. I want her. Where is she?"

Jamal stared down at the deep mahogany desktop for a moment, "Is everything alright Sam?"

"Jamal, where is she?"

"Science lab. I can send the coordinates to you via your bike."

"Do it," Sam huffed as she slammed the receiver back onto the phone and walked out of the garage area towards her bike. She pulled her keys out of her pocket after she pulled her black helmet over her head. She turned on her bike, revved the engine for a minute as the coordinates showed up on her screen and she took off out of the garage.

"No problem," Rush (Ashley) smirked in his thick Texas accent.

Poseidon (Sean) looked over at Caution (Lindsey), while Rush was distracted and nodded, "Caution you need to protect Dreamer." He leaned a little more over to Caution and whispered in his thick Australian accent, "We can't afford to loose her."

"Why do I always have to baby-sit?" Caution sighed in her thick Australian accent.

"Because you're one of the most powerful." He huffed. "I'm the leader and you have to follow my orders."

"Whatever," Caution grunted and grabbed Dreamer (Dawn) by the forearm and started to walk away with her. Her fingertips transformed into claws and dug into Dreamer's skin.

"Ow." Dreamer gasped as she looked at her arm and then up at Caution. "I'm not a child." She gasped as she stumbled behind a crate that Caution tossed her towards.

"Obviously, he thinks so." Caution jerked her head in the direction of Poseidon.

Dreamer's brown eyes stared over at Poseidon for a moment. "I'm not a child."

"Then die like the rest of us." Caution rolled her brown eyes and turned around to walk back towards Poseidon.

"What are you doing here?" Poseidon gasped as he looked around for Dreamer.

"She said she wanted to fight." Caution shrugged as she continued to walk closer towards Poseidon

"You're supposed to stay with her!"

Rush turned around and smoothed out his black board shorts before looking at Poseidon and Caution. "Ah hope ya don't mind gettin' wet little kitty." He taunted at Caution.

Caution balled her fists up and started to charge towards Rush, "I'm not a Feral." She growled as she transformed into her werewolf form mid-run.

Rush clapped his hands together and then turned them out towards Caution as she ran towards him. A wave of water shot towards her at full force.

Poseidon watched as Caution flipped up into the air and over the wave, but the water continued at full force towards a pile of crates full of scientific equipment… And where Dreamer was hiding. The reflection from Dreamer's silver arm bands caught Poseidon's attention, which made him take of sprinting towards the crates. _Dreamer!_ He held one of his hands out in front of him and create a large wave that blocked Rush's wave. The collision of water burst with a loud clap and sprinkles of droplets rained over everyone.

Caution flipped behind Rush, "I'm a werewolf." She snarled as she immediately swiped her claws over his back, which shredded through his black muscle shirt and his skin on his back. Rush let out a cry of pain as he stumbled forward, but quickly regained himself. He turned around and shot a wave of water at full force direction into Caution's stomach, which sent her fly through the air.

Poseidon glanced over at Caution, who was busy distracting Rush and ran over to Dreamer. "You alright?" He asked as he crouched down to her.

"I'm fine," She said angrily, "and I'm not a child."

"I know that," Poseidon sighed, "It's just that you're too important to all of us to loose you."

"Whatever," She rolled her eyes.

"I let you fight as long as you're not stupid about it."

Dreamer looked back at him, "Fine."

Poseidon stood up and held his hand out to her to help her up. "Come on." He nodded as he led Dreamer out into the chaotic battle scene unfolding before their very eyes.

Poseidon's brown eyes surveyed the situation as Caution continued to attack Rush. "I need one good hit…" He said absentmindedly.

"I can do that." Dreamer said through her face mask that covered her nose and mouth.

Poseidon looked down at her and nodded, "Then do it."

Dreamer smirked from under her mask, "I'll need a few minutes, and I can only give you a few seconds."

"Perfect. That's all I need." Poseidon smirked. Dreamer nodded her head and began to concentrate her brown eyes on Rush, and only Rush.

Caution was pinned against a thick concrete wall as Rush continued to crash wave after wave against her so that she couldn't move. The blood from her claw rolled down his tan skin as he continued to push against her. He took a deep breath in and forced it out violently, which made the waves push harder against her. The concrete around her body began to crack around her as he continued to push.

Rush's green eyes flashed in horror as a ring of fire blazed around him. _What the hell?_ He thought as he looked around him in panic. The ring was closing in faster and faster around him the more he turned around in circles to look for an escape.

Caution slid from the wall down to the ground and laid there in pain. Even though she had fur covering her skin, it still was obvious that her skin underneath the fur was burning red in pain. She let out a quivering breath as she stayed on the cold cement ground for a couple moments as she stared curiously at Rush, who seemed to be panicking for no reason.

Poseidon stared at Rush, who was turning around in circles, "What is he doing?"

"Take your chance," Dreamer gasped as she squinted her eyes more as she stared at Rush, "I can't hold it."

Poseidon took off running towards Rush, who was too preoccupied to notice Poseidon. He stopped in front of Rush and then balled his fists up. His rough skin of his knuckled cracked across Rush's cheek, which sent Rush tumbling towards the ground. Poseidon quickly followed behind him by holding his hand out and shooting a wave out directly into Rush's stomach.

Dreamer fell to her knees as sweat beads trickled down her forehead while her brown eyes stared at Caution.

Caution glared over at Dreamer as she slowly stood up and looked over at Rush who was flying across the room towards a wall. She took off running and tackled Rush out of the way of the wave and tumbled to the ground.

Poseidon closed his fist, _What is she doing!_ He thought as he ran towards her.

Caution stared down at Rush as she grabbed his hand and held it close to her heart, "You can thank me later."

"What?" Rush gasped as he looked at the girl, who transformed before his eyes back to a human instead of a werewolf.

"I'm working on your side," She whispered, "The one you want is the girl in the mask."

"Then why are you fighting with them,"

"I'm working on the inside, now push me away before it looks suspicious." She pushed his hand against her chest and Rush sent a wave out against her, which made her fall backwards towards Poseidon.

Poseidon braced himself as he caught Caution, "What the hell were you thinking?"

"I had a score to settle." She grunted as she pushed off of him in order to stand up straight.

"I had him."

"Sorry," She said sarcastically.

Rush took off running towards Dreamer, who was still on her knees. _She's the one we want._ He thought as he locked eyes with the young girl.

Dreamer held her hands out in front of her a brick wall flashed in front of her, but quickly disappeared. "Come on, come on." She whispered to herself as she tried to create a brick wall with her imagination.

"Dreamer!" Poseidon shouted as he turned around and saw Rush running after her. "Damnit." Poseidon turned his palms out towards Rush and shot a wave out towards him. The wave barely missed him and so Poseidon took off running after him. "Don't just sit there. I told you to watch her!" He screamed at Caution.

Caution rolled her brown eyes at him before taking off running after Poseidon. She bounded against the sides of crates as she came closer and closer towards Dreamer.

Poseidon held his hands out in front of him again and shot another blast off that directly hit Rush. _Thank you._ He thought as he continued to run.

Caution dropped next to Dreamer's side and looked down at her. "I thought you wanted to prove yourself."

Dreamer looked up at her, "My powers had a glitch."

"No room for that." Caution rolled her eyes as Poseidon ran up to them.


	38. Sonic Death

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 37: Sonic Death

Sonic's (Rashad) fingers continued to quickly type across the keyboard as he desperately searched for a certain file on the computer. _You're security system is good._ He thought with a smirk as he continued to hack through encrypted files.

Void (Hiro) looked over at Linx and saw her two different colored hazel eyes staring ahead at Sonic, who was completely oblivious to them watching him. "Do you want me to?"

Linx paused for a moment and then slowly shook her head, "No. I will." She sighed as she stepped forward through the chaos of everything. Chaos and horror never bothered her, in fact, she found it oddly soothing. She concentrated on the chair that Sonic was sitting in, and soon it began to skyrocket into the air.

Sonic looked around him for a couple seconds and then stepped away from the chair, which shattered against the ceiling. He stood there floating in the air as he looked down at Void and Linx with a smirk, "You thought you could surprise me huh?"

"We were hoping to," Linx said calmly as she stood there next to Void in her black cat suit with a red X on the right breast of it and her black belt with the red X on the buckle.

"Too bad," Sonic grunted as he held his hand up and shot a sonic blast out directly towards both of them.

Void quickly dodged out of the way, while Linx stared directly ahead at the blast. She closed her eyes just as the blast was inches from her face and transported to Limbo.

The pure light of Limbo always blinded her when she transported there. She her whispers of 'Mistress' echoed in the endless white light of the realm as she pushed her hood from her white cloak back from her head and looked out over the souls of people who were waiting to move on from Limbo. She glanced around for a minute as glowing orbs floated in the white light of Limbo she walked. Each orb echoed voices as the souls floated in the air.

"Linx!" Void turned around and looked at the burn mark on the ground where she once was standing. His brown eyes turned and looked up at Sonic, who was still floating in the air.

"Not much of a threat is she?" He chuckled.

"Trust me," Void turned his attention towards Sonic, "she is." He smirked as he clapped his hands together and soon the gravity around Sonic reverse.

Sonic quickly fell head first towards the ground as he desperately tried to stop himself from falling. It was as though the more he tried to fly higher, the faster he fell towards the ground. _What the hell is going on?!_

As Linx walked through Limbo, the glowing orbs moved to the side of her as they softly light her face. There wasn't a human in sight, but the orbs light the white nothingness for miles. Her hazel eyes glanced from side to side at her warped reflection in the light of the souls floating in the air around her.

With a loud thud, Sonic hit the ground. He pressed against the cement as Void slowly stalked closer and closer towards him. Blood began to slowly pour out of Sonic's nose and instead of spilling across the ground in wiggled slowly into the air. Void's brown eyes stared at the blood as it continued to float passed his face and higher into the air.

Sonic let out a grunt of pain as he tried to push himself off the ground seemed to push him farther into the cement that was beginning to crack underneath his weight.

Sonic's grunted echoed throughout the white light of Limbo, which made Linx look around. _How could I forget?_ She asked herself as she closed her eyes and in an instant was returning to the living realm in the spot where her body once was standing and all that was left was the burn marks from Sonic's blast.

Her hazel eyes looked over at Void, who was standing over Sonic with no emotion in his eyes. "Void," She said calmly as she walked towards him; she never raised her voice.

Void turned around at the sound of her voice, and soon his powers wore off. "Linx…" He sighed at the sight of her.

Sonic's blood from his nose splashed down on the ground near his face. His brown eyes stared at Void's black boots in anger. He slammed his hand on the ground and sonic blast vibrated through the ground and exploded underneath Void's boots. Void sharply flew up into the air, while Sonic slowly stood up from the ground and held his hand out in front of him again. Another sonic blast shot from Sonic's hand and hit Void directly.

Linx's hazel eyes watched in horror as Void was pushed higher and higher into the air by Sonic's blast. Sonic's brown eyes showed no mercy as blood slowly rolled down from his nose over his plump lips. Linx looked over at Sonic and concentrated as she used her telekinesis to sharply lift him into the air.

"Back off bitch!" He shouted as he held his other fee hand out and sent another sonic blast out at her along with repeatedly sending blast against Void. Linx's two different colored hazel eyes glared at the blast that burst against an invisible force field she had setup in front of her with her telekinesis. "You **are** tougher than you look, huh?" Sonic smirked as he turned his entire attention towards Linx.

Void fell from the sky, half unconscious, which made Linx turn her attention to him and stop him with her mind. She caught him midair and floated him over towards her as she walked towards his body. "I'm fine Linx," Void said as he landed on his feet softly and walked closer towards her.

"Isn't that cute." Sonic said sarcastically before throwing two different sonic blast at both of them.

Linx put up another invisible wall in front of her, which made the blast explode in front of her, but her eyes didn't flinch. Her black hair with the bright red highlights underneath it slightly swayed in the wind of the blast, but she didn't move. The other blast headed directly for Void, who flicked his fingers out and made the gravity of the blast reverse and turn back towards Sonic.

Sonic's brown eyes widen as he flicked his wrist to try to deflect the blast up towards the ceiling, but since the gravity was reverse on the blast, it dove into the ground and exploded. He shielded his eyes for a second, and when the debris cleared he was staring ahead at Linx and Void, who had still yet to move. _This is going to be harder than it appears. I'm going to have to step it up…_ Sonic placed his hands on the ground and then slowly raised them. Nothing happened.

The ground slowly began to vibrate more and more violently as Linx and Void stood there. They both looked down at the ground and then glanced at one another. Linx reached over and grabbed Void's hand. The ground below them exploded and when the debris cleared, they were no longer standing there; all that was left was the crumbled cement and burn marks on the ground.


	39. Diseased Shadow

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 38: Diseased Shadow

Shadow Runner stood outside of the warehouse as he watched the carnage unfold in front of his deep green eyes, which were hidden behind his black sunglasses. The tricks that Chaos was pulling in fighting X² made his stomach churn as he watched in horror. He closed his eyes and slowly melted into the shadow below him.

When he reappeared he was inside the warehouse amongst the shadows and out of sight. The loud clatter of the noise burned his ears as he listened to the explosions and screams of the people.

Miracle (Natalie) stood before Hecate and Octavian (Gabe) with a devious smirk on her face. Even though Miracle never looked like much, she was one of the most deadly members of Chaos; literally. All she needed was one touch and she could instant kill someone in the most painful way possible.

"Her powers are over diseases," Octavian reminded Hecate in his thick southern accent, "We can't let her touch us."

"I remember." Hecate quietly said as her deep blue eyes locked with Miracle's silver colored eyes.

"We'll have to fight from afar." Octavian sighed as he glanced over at Hecate with his ice blue eyes.

"I can't," Hecate sighed, "I need to touch her in order to do any damage. If I can shut her down we'll be fine." Hecate said straight faced.

"Come and get it," Miracle smirked in her thick British accent.

Octavian smirked back towards Miracle, "Gladly darlin'." He chuckled as he held his hands together and Miracle's shadow rose up from the ground and punched her across the cheek.

Miracle fell to the ground, which made her shadow disappear beneath her. She rolled her jaw while she held her hand around it. She licked the blood from her lip and glared over at Octavian. "I thought you were a southern gentleman."

"Ah am," He said as he stalked closer towards her.

"Then I thought you don't hit ladies," Miracle stayed on the ground. _His powers are control over shadows. As long as I stay away from the shadows or don't have one, I'll be fine._

"Technically Ah didn't hit ya," he smirked, "ya hit yaself." He chuckled.

Hecate walked closing behind Octavian, _I need touch her in order to shut her down._ She sighed as she stood a few feet away from Miracle, who wasn't seeming to leave the ground. Hecate raised her eyebrow at Miracle's actions as she stood there. _What is she doing?_

"Aren't ya gonna get up?" Octavian teased.

"It's quite cozy here actually," Miracle smirked _It's filthy down here_, "why don't you lie down next to me and see."

"No thanks darlin'," He shook his head. _Ah'm not that stupid._

_She's figured out his power._ Hecate thought in shock. _As long as she stays on the ground he has no shadow to work with._

In an instant, Miracle dove across the ground and grabbed around Hecate's army boot. Octavian jumped out of the way as he stared down at Miracle, who was latched onto Hecate's boot, but Hecate didn't move. She glared down at Miracle with her deep blue eyes and shook her head, "Pathetic."

Hecate quickly reached down to place her hand on Miracle's hand. Miracle smirked as her silver colored eyes turned into a dark gray while she the transfer of the flu washed over Hecate through the mere touch of their skin. Hecate's stomach twisted and churned as she kept contact. Soon Miracle's whole body fell ridged on the floor and her dark gray eyes changed back to silver and then warped into a black, lifeless color.

Hecate stumbled backwards as she came free of Miracle's grip, while she laid there lifeless on the floor. Octavian placed his hand behind her and caught her, "Are ya alright?"

Hecate slowly stood up as she fought through the pain in her body and resisted the urge to throw up. "I'm fine."

"You're burning up." Octavian said as he looked concerned.

"I'm fine." She shouted as she walked up towards Miracle and rolled her over with a slightly nudge of her army boot.

"She infected ya, didn't she?"

"I'll be fine." She sighed as she raised her foot up and kicked as hard as possible into Miracle's side. Miracle's lifeless body slid across the ground a couple feet, and Hecate fell to the ground. _I'm not as strong…_

Miracle gasped as her eyes returned back to their silvery luster. _What happened?_ She thought as she looked around her and then saw Hecate on the ground. _She's infected. I can see it around her._

"Let mah handle this." Octavian said with his hand on Hecate's shoulder and then stalked towards Miracle.

Octavian raised his hand in the air as if he was strangling the air. The small shadow below Miracle warped and a black shadow hand raised up and wrapped around her throat. She gasped as she wrapped her hands around the wrist while she gasped for breath. She felt the warmth of the hand and then her silvery colored eyes turned dark gray again.

Octavian felt a burning sensation through his wrist and quickly dropped Miracle. He ripped his fingerless glove off of his hand and saw the red rings around his wrist. He glared over at Miracle with his icy blue eyes and then pulled his glove back over his hand; covering the burn.

Hecate's deep blue eyes washed into a deep black as she stared at Miracle. She slowly stood up and stalked slowly towards Miracle. Her completely black eyes pierced into Miracle's now silver colored eyes with fear. She balled her fist and cracked it across Miracle's face.

Without even realizing it, Miracle absorb the flu back into her body before falling to the ground. Hecate stood over her in anger as she slammed her fist into the ground to hit Miracle, but Miracle rolled away. The cement beneath Hecate's fist shattered.

Octavian stared at Hecate and sighed. _Not again._ He ran over to Hecate and grabbed her just as she was about to hit Miracle again. "Hecate, this isn't what ya want." He reminded her.

Hecate's solid black eyes washed back into her deep blue as she looked at Octavian. _Thank you._ She never admit it though.

Miracle jumped to her feet as soon as possible and ran towards Hecate and Octavian in her white platform high heels. Octavian turned and saw her and quickly used his and Hecate's shadow to create a shadow wall. Miracle stopped before it and placed her hand against it. Octavian fell to his knees as the burn sensation filled his lungs and shadow wall melted away. Hecate threw another punch towards Miracle as soon as the wall melted away, but Miracle dodged it.

Octavian regained his strength as he stood up to see Hecate throwing punch after punch at Miracle. He built Miracle shadow up and threw her against the cement wall and then quickly retracted the shadow back to normal. "Ah've learned how to play with ya." He smirked as he watched Miracle slowly stand up from the ground, "Come and get it darlin'."


	40. Painful Secrets Revealed

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 39: Painful Secrets Revealed

The echoing of the fresh cut diamonds hitting the metal of Counterstrike's (Tonya) arm cuffs filled the warehouse amongst the rest of the cacophony of the battle. Counterstrike absorbed every hit that Diamond (Karen) throw at her, and she played the defensive side of the battle.

Finally, Counterstrike pushed back against Diamond to gain her footing. "My turn," Counterstrike smirked in her thick British accent before taking off running towards Diamond, who had found new diamonds to fight with. Counterstrike threw her forearm across to shatter Diamond's diamonds and then threw a punch straight across Diamond's face with all her absorbed energy. She watched as Diamond fell to the ground and stalked over her.

Diamond used her feet to push Counterstrike back and away from her as she jumped up onto her feet as quick as possible. She took tiny pieces of ice from Frostbite's (Seth) shattered blast and transformed them into multiple tiny diamond daggers. She quickly threw them towards Counterstrike.

Counterstrike balled her fists up as she prepared herself for the impact. She skillfully blocked the diamonds with her arm cuffs, but two got by her and cut her cheek. She stood there staring at Diamond as the blood slowly rolled down her cheek.

"Did that hurt?" Diamond asked sarcastically in her French accent.

Counterstrike calmly wiped the blood from her cheek with the back of her blue glove, "Not at all." She smirked as she felt her body absorb the hit from the diamonds.

Frostbite shot a slide of ice in front of him as he rode towards Shocker (Lucas). He graceful followed the slide from side to side as he came closer and closer to Shocker.

"You never learn do you?" Shocker laughed in his thick Scottish accent as he rubbed his gloved hands together. He turned his hands out towards the slide and sent out a large ball of electricity that hit the slide. The entire slide shattered in the air.

_Perfect._ Frostbite thought as he pushed off the slide and flipped in the air above Shocker. He held his hands out straight and shot a blast of ice directly down on Shocker.

Shocker looked above him and dove out of the way, but the edge of his black trench coat froze over and shattered as it hit the ground. His brown eyes with gold flecks looked over at his trench coat and then back over at Frostbite. "That was my favorite jacket."

"My bad," Frostbite said sarcastically with a nonchalant shrug as he prepared to shot again.

"You're damn right your bad," Shocker grunted as he shot a bolt of electricity out at Frostbite.

Clutch (Noah) dove down from the air and scooped Frostbite up by the biceps just in time to miss the lightening bolt. "Thanks," Frostbite sighed as he looked up at Clutch.

"No problem," Clutch nodded as he dropped Frostbite on the ground carefully and then landed next to him. His large grey gargoyle wings folded behind his back as he stood next to Frostbite staring at Shocker.

Clutch leaned over and picked up a large scientific equipment that looked much like a strange kaleidoscope and lifted it above his head. For any other person, they wouldn't have been able to lift it, let alone lift it above his or her head. If they had, it would have squashed and killed them easily, but Clutch held it above his head easily. He took a deep breath in and then threw the large equipment at Shocker with a loud grunt.

Shocker's brown eyes grew large as he watched the flying equipment fly towards him. He rubbed his hands together and then laid them on the ground softly. _Please let this work._ He prayed and soon a shower of lightening bolts broke through the ceiling and shattered the large equipment with blast after blast.

Clutch and Frostbite covered their eyes with their forearms as the bright explosion echoed throughout the warehouse.

Sam's bike flew through the debris of the warehouse gates and came to a skidding halt outside of the warehouse. She violently removed her black motorcycle helmet to let her auburn hair fall freely. She stalked up to the warehouse in her uniform, which was a black one shoulder strap shirt with a red X on the strap and black pants that laced up with a red string.

She walked through the gaping hole in the warehouse and glanced at the debris of the guards laying around the hole with her hazel-green eyes. Her eyes glanced from side to side as she searched desperately amongst the carnage for the reason she was there. She wasn't there for her team, for the battle, she was there for revenge.

Clutch hovered in the air and his grey-blue eyes caught sight of Rage (Sam) and gasped. _Sam…_ "Frostbite, take over!" He shouted down as he quickly flew over to her.

He softly landed next to her, "Sam," he gasped, "I- I thought you weren't coming back." He waited a couple of seconds and saw that she was in some strange trance as she scanned over the fighting mutants as if looking for something, or someone.

Rage's hazel-green eyes fell upon Caution (Lyndsey) and in an instant her body turned into it's half-cat form. Her fingertips grew into long claws, and her hazel-green eyes flashed into a deep yellow with slit irises. "CAUTION!" She screamed out across the warehouse, which echoed amongst everyone.

Clutch looked over at Caution and then saw the pure hatred in Rage's eyes as if she was going to kill Caution. "Rage calm down. That's our teammate." He reminded her.

She turned sharply and looked at Clutch in fury, "She is no teammate of mine."

"Rage calm down." He tried to say sternly.

"She killed Ghost! I will **not** be calm!" She screamed and then turned back to look at Caution, "Not until she's dead."

Clutch felt his heart sink as he looked at the anger in Rage's eyes and realized that it was more pain than anything. He looked at Caution, who didn't seemed offended or afraid of Rage. _That would explain everything…_


	41. Goodbye To A Twisted Dream

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 40: Goodbye To A Twisted Dream

While everyone was slightly distracted by Rage's (Sam) presence, Rush (Ashley) glanced out of the corner of his green eyes and saw Dreamer (Dawn) standing alone by a pile of wooden crates. _She's the one we want…_ Caution's (Lyndsey) words echoed in his head as he stared at her for a moment. His eyes looked over at Caution, who was standing near Dreamer, but was looking down at Rage with a smirk.

Caution's brown eyes glanced over at Rush and gave a tiny nod, before turning her attention back towards Rage. _Well what crawled up your ass? _She smirked at the thought. She hadn't figured out why Rage was there, but the strange feeling that filled the air seemed to tell Caution that her plan had fallen through.

Rush was at first taken back by Caution's jester and then came to his senses, "Right." He whispered to himself as he took off running towards Dreamer as fast as he could. He held his hands down by his side so that his palm was facing the ground and shot a wave out from his hands. He gracefully stepped onto the wave and dodged back and forth as he rode closer towards Dreamer.

Poseidon (Sean) glanced over and saw Rush heading for Dreamer and quickly he shot out a wave to crash into Rush, but Rush quickly dodged it. _Damnit._ Sean thought as he looked around for something to stop Rush, "Dreamer!" He shouted towards the young girl.

Dreamer looked in the direction of Poseidon and immediately her dark brown eyes fell upon Rush, who was coming up quickly on her. She let out a warm gasp of breath against her face mask that covered her nose and mouth. She held her hands in front of her and concentrated as hard as she possibly could, but she was so scared of how quickly Rush was coming at her she couldn't use her powers. "Come on, come on." She whispered to herself as she stared Rush in the eyes while her hands were held in front of her.

Caution's brown eyes glanced over at Dreamer, who was helplessly trying to defend herself against Rush and smirked. _I've upheld my end of the bargain._ She turned her attention back towards Rage and stared her down confidently.

"Ya're mine." Rush smirked as the wave towered in front of Dreamer, and then he dove down towards her to grab her. He bent down and held his large hand down to grab Dreamer's hand, but his wave shot straight up in the air when he was inches away from grabbed her. "What the hell?!" He shouted as he looked around. He bent down and placed his wave and it quickly shot back down and then twisted around and around until he fell off of it. "What the hell is gonna on?!" He shouted as he slowly stood up and looked at Dreamer and Poseidon as if they were to blame.

"Ya don't wanna mess with me chico, or my friends," a thick New York accent chuckled as young woman walked into the warehouse through the large gaping hole. She was wearing black pants and a v-neck black top that laced up the back with red ribbon so her red and black wing tattoos were proudly showing.

Dreamer turned around and her brown eyes went large in excitement, "Twista!" She shouted as she ran over towards the older girl.

"Hey chica." Twista (Saria) laughed as she walked over towards her and held one hand out to hug her. "Ya alright?"

"Fine," She nodded through her face mask.

"Look at ya. All dressed up and ready to kick some ass." She smirked.

"Who the hell are ya?" Rush shouted.

Twista looked away from Dreamer and back at Rush. "Ya worse nightmare; that's who."

Hecate and Linx stood in front of Sparks (Orion), who look disappointed. He was dressed in a white muscle shirt and black jeans, while his yellow eyes stared at Hecate and Linx. He sighed quietly in his thick Italian accent, "I told you to stay away…"

"Shut up!" Hecate shouted as her deep blue eyes went completely black out of anger. "How could you betray us like that? I knew you were low, but this low?" She asked in astonishment. She looked over at Linx slowly blinked her two different colored hazel eyes and looked away from Sparks. She could tell that Link couldn't look at him out of sheer pain and betrayal. Hecate threw her hands into Spark's chest with all her strength, which sent him flying across the room into a cement wall.

Sparks' closed his yellow colored eyes in pain as he stood against the wall and looked back at Hecate. "I deserved that." He nodded to the young girl, who was stalking over towards him.

Hecate balled her fists up into a ball and punched into Sparks' chest over and over again. The wall behind him was slowly begin to crack with every blow and blood was slowly rolling from the edges of Sparks' mouth.

Linx stood behind Hecate and closed her eyes as she heard ever grunt from Hecate and every gasp from Sparks. The pain made her stomach churn, and then when she heard Sparks slide to the ground so opened her eyes to see Hecate pulling her foot back in order to kick Sparks in the head, which was sure to kill him. "Stop." Linx said calmly, which made Hecate stop in the middle of the kick but she didn't turn around.

"Why?" Hecate grunted as her deep blue eyes stared in anger at Sparks, who was on the floor spitting up blood.

"You're going to kill him." Linx pleaded as she walked over to Hecate.

"Why shouldn't he die? He betrayed us."

Linx placed her hand softly on Hecate's shoulder and sighed, "Because no one deserves to die, and you shouldn't be the one to deal them death."

Hecate sighed and then lowered her foot. She stared at Sparks for a moment, "You disgust me." She spat and walked away from Linx and Sparks.

"She is quite a little fireball huh?" He chuckled and then coughed up more blood on the floor.

Linx looked at the frail man on the floor and sighed, "I want nothing to do with you."

Sparks looked up at Linx and he slowly started to stand up from off the floor, "But Linx, come on. I was trying to protect you two."

Linx shook her head slowly, "I want you to leave and never come back."

"But Linx," He placed his hand on her shoulder, "I can't leave you alone."

She looked down at his hand and sighed, "Either you can leave, or I can deal the card that Hecate was so willing to play against you." She said with a straight face as her entire body became cold like a corpse would feel.

Sparks nodded his head slowly as he slid his hand from her shoulder. "As you wish." Linx closed her eyes for a moment as she felt his presence limp passed her and through the chaos of the warehouse towards the gaping hole where the door once was. She quietly opened her two different colored eyes again and looked towards the gaping hole, but Sparks was nowhere to be seen.


	42. The True Fight Begins

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 41: The True Fight Begins

Shadow Runner (Arcane) stood in the shadows of the warehouse staring at the carnage before him. He watched as Chaos turned X² against one another and while X² spared Chaos misery, Chaos refused to do the same. His deep green eyes grew hard and full of hatred as he watched Chaos continue to fight an unfair battle.

_How can they do this without a regret in their minds? _He thought in his Australian accent as he stared in disgust. _How?_ He closed his eyes as he watched Rush (Ashley) shoot a wave into Poseidon (Sean) and crushed him against the cement wall. Poseidon pushed back with a wave to protect himself and then Frostbite (Seth) froze the stream between both of them and it shattered in between them.

He looked down at the ground at the sparkling piece of ice shard that lay at his feet. He let out a tiny breath and watched the shard melt. "I don't want to be part of this…" He whispered as he stared at the small puddle that reflected his dark figure.

Sonic (Rashad) stared down at the burn marks on the shattered cement ground and smirked. "That was easy." He chuckled before walking over to the computer monitor and sitting down in front of it.

He pressed a couple of keys and soon the monitor went from black to having multiple files on the screen. "Now where was I?" He smirked as he cracked his fingers and then began to type against the keypad so more and more files popped up on the monitor.

Sonic quit typing for a moment as his brown eyes scanned over the monitor for a couple of seconds, _What do you mean the "cure" has been made?!_ He thought in shock as he stared at the monitor and then began to type furiously on the keyboard. _I need to know exactly what it does and where is it._

His dark brown eyes shifted from side to side at each file that popped up on the screen and then he paused. _It doesn't "cure" mutants…_ He thought quietly in his head.

Void (Hiro) opened his eyes and quickly shut them because of the blinding white light around him. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around and saw nothing but white light and glowing floating orbs all around him. He looked over to his side and saw Linx dressed in completely white robe with the hood pushed back. "Where are we?"

"Limbo." She said quietly as she walked around and the orbs quickly moved out of her way.

Whispers echoed throughout Limbo as Linx and Void walked around quietly. Void looked around carefully at the orbs and saw nothing but his reflection against them. He raised his eyebrow at the whispers of the word 'Mistress' and then turned back to look at Linx. "Who is whispering?"

"The souls

"What?"

"The orbs; they're people's souls." She smiled softly as she continued to walk around and then turned back towards Void to walk towards him.

"Why are they whispering Mistress?"

"That's what they call me in Limbo," She shrugged nonchalantly. "We have to be getting back," she said as she held out her hand to Void and waited.

Void nodded and placed his hand in hers. In an instant flash, him and Linx returned back into the living realm exactly in the same spot that they disappeared from.

Linx looked around for a minute and then saw Sonic sitting at the computer again. "He's over there." Void looked down at their hands, which were still together and then slowly slid them apart.

"It kills them," Sonic gasped softly as he stared at the screen. He looked up from the screen and saw Linx and Void standing before him, "I thought it was a little too easy to get rid of you pest." He chuckled. _The virus was lost a week ago and they haven't been able to located since._ He thought as he went over the facts in his head.

A dark figure stood in the dark corner of the warehouse and smirked at the carnage playing out. _Perfect._ He chuckled in his head and then his dark eyes caught sight of another figure within the shadows. _Well, well, well what do we have here? _He thought as he stared ahead at the man and stood quickly behind him. _He's one of them. A filthy mutant…_ He thought bitterly in his mind as he softly moved his coat to the side and revealed a line of injection needles lined against the inside of his black trench coat.

Sonic slowly raised into the air and hovered above Linx and Void as he stared down at them with his dark brown eyes. "So I ready to stay and fight, or do you still want to runaway?" He taunted from above.

"I'm not afraid of you," Linx said calmly as she stepped forward.

"You should be."

"If I don't fear death, than I certainly don't fear you," She smirked and concentrated on Sonic and sent him crashing towards the ground with her telekinesis. "If we don't run, you can't fly." She smirked as she felt Void run passed her towards Sonic. Void skillfully jumped over equipment debris towards Sonic, who was pinned against the ground.

"Fine," Sonic grunted as he pushed against Linx's telekinetic hold with his sonic power, which made Linx stumble backwards from where she was standing. "Then **you **fight me fairly," Sonic said as he slowly stood up to see Void running towards him. "Bad idea." He shot out a blast of sonic energy towards Void, who quickly sent it back. Sonic took off into the air to avoid the blast and Void.

Linx balanced her feet and then took a deep breath in as she took off running towards Void, "Void," she said calmly, "boost."

Void turned around and cupped his hands together just in time for Linx to place her foot in his hands and push her up into the air after Sonic. She used her telekinesis to pull Sonic down as flipped in the air. Her foot cracked under Sonic's chin as she fell back towards the ground into Void's arms. He carefully caught her and then set her down on the ground.

Sonic flew higher into the air because of the impact and then when he gained control over his ability to fly again, he shot a sonic blast towards them. Void stood in front of Linx, "Pull him towards me," He said to her as he reversed the gravity of the blast again.

She clenched her fist as if she was squeezing something and did a sharp pull towards her side, which made Sonic quickly fall back towards them and directly into the sonic blast he shot at them. As the first blast hit him, he shot another blast out at Linx and Void when he was only a couple feet away from them. Linx used her telekinesis and pushed Void out of the way as the second sonic blast hit Linx directly.

Shadow Runner stared at his reflection in the tiny puddle before him as he saw different explosions dancing in the puddle, _I'm going to even the score. _He nodded as he placed one foot forward and then froze as his dark green eyes grew wide in pain from behind his dark sunglasses. A sharp pain surge from his spine and rippled throughout his entire body.

"You took my world, so I'm taking your life in exchange," a terrifying voice whispered against Shadow Runner's ear that sent shivers throughout his body as he felt the virus quickly move from the needle in his back through his veins. Shadow Runner dropped to his knees and used all of his strength to stay sitting up as the dark figure came into his blurred view. "And I will take all of their too." The voice chuckled and then disappeared.

Shadow Runner stared out at the blurred visions of X² and Chaos. _Run… _He tried to scream out to warn everyone, but nothing came out except a gasp as he fell forward against the cold cement.


	43. Revenge Isn't Always Sweet

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 42: Revenge Isn't Always Sweet

Clutch (Noah) stood staring at Rage (Sam) in disbelief, but stepped to the side. His grayish-blue eyes watched as Rage slowly stormed off towards Caution (Lyndsey).

Shocker (Lucas) looked over at Rage, _Sammy?_ He thought and then saw that Clutch wasn't paying attention at all, and was alone. _Perfect._ He smirked to himself as he ball his fists together. Tiny lightening bolts circles around his fists before he brought his hands together and turned his palms out to shoot a ball of electricity out at Clutch.

Clutch turned his attention towards the large ball, and wrapped his wings around his body. He felt the surge of shock move from his wings into his back and spread through his entire body. He grinded his teeth as he tried to continue standing through the pain surging throughout his stone body. He pushed his wings out and behind him as the pain slowly faded and then he stumbled forward. The world around him was blurred as he still felt a slight twinge of pain as he stood there for a moment.

Shocker smirked as he stared at the man who was half man, half gargoyle and chuckled. He stepped forward to attack him again, but the glint of something out of the corner of his brown eyes with gold flecks. He turned and looked amongst the wooden crates and saw a dark figure laying on the ground. _What the hell?_ He slowly walked towards the figure and then crouched down next to his side. He carefully rolled him over and then gasped aloud, "Shadow Runner…"He checked his pulse, and barely felt one.

He looked around to see if anyone had noticed what had happened and then slowly stood up. Shocker quietly back away from his fallen teammate and quickly jogged back into the opening and looked around. _There's someone else here…_ He thought as he looked in the darkness of the ceilings and around at the carnage.

Rage slowly walked up to Caution, who was standing calmly waiting for her. "I thought you abandoned us?" Caution smirked.

"I couldn't abandoned my family when there's a traitor amongst them." Rage growled as she stopped a couple of feet away from Caution.

"Are you trying to imply something?" Caution asked in her thick Australian accent.

"Yeah," Rage huffed, "why weren't you protecting Dreamer? I know Poseidon told you to."

Caution's brown eyes glared at Rage for a moment, "She wanted to fight, so I let her."

"You were supposed to protect her! You almost let her die, and I bet if she had you wouldn't have cared," Rage shouted as she felt her blood begin to boil in disgust the more she looked at Caution. "Just like how you didn't care when you let Ghost die!" She screamed.

_So she found out…_ Caution thought as she stayed calm at the acussation, "What are you talking about? Ghost got away from me and by the time I found him, Sonic had-"

"Save it!" Rage growled, "I saw the tape. You let him die… You technically killed him!"

Caution gained her posture and then smirked, "Took you long enough." She chuckled and then quickly turned into her werewolf state. "So you're here for revenge"

"I'm here for you," Rage said as he fingernails turned into long claws, and her hazel-green eyes transformed into completely yellow colored eyes with tiny slit irises. Her body quickly became covered in auburn colored fur.

Rage took off running towards Caution as fast as she could. She jumped up in the air and tried to kick her, but Caution blocked the kick and pushed back against her foot. Rage flipped backwards and landed perfectly on her feet. She looked up just as Caution was running towards her. Caution slashed her claws at Rage's face, but grabbed Caution's wrists and kicked her in the stomach to push her backwards.

Caution caught her ground and took off running towards Rage again. She flipped over her back and kicked Rage in the back of the head as she was flipping, which made Rage fall to the ground. Rage rolled onto her back just as Caution jumped on top of her and punched her across the face. "You won't beat me." Caution laughed in her face as she punched Rage across the face again.

Rage's blood boiled inside of her as her anger began to let her feral instincts take over her body. "Watch me," She growled as she curled her leg to her chest and pushed Caution off of her. She flipped to her feet and took off running towards Caution.

Rage's fist cracked across Caution's cheek over and over again, which made both of them walk closer and closer towards the edge of the landing that overlooked the sunken equipment testing area. Rage finally punched her as hard as she could, which sent Caution falling to the ground. Rage strangled her and wrapped her clawed hands around Caution's throat and began to squeeze. "I'm going to watch you die, like you watched Ghost die!" She growled as her claws dug into Caution's neck, drawing tiny lines of blood. "I should cut your throat and watch you gasp for life like you did with him!" She said as tears absentmindedly rolled down her cheek as the image of Ghost's death played over in her mind like a silent movie.

Caution rolled her foot to her chest and then kicked Rage off of her and quickly flipped to her feet. In the blink of an eye, Rage had landed on one foot and used her other foot to kick Caution in the stomach and off the ledge they were standing on. She heard a clatter below and then a desperate gasp.

Rage stood there for a moment and then slowly walked over to the ledge, and as she walked her body slowly transformed back into its human state. She stood at the ledge and looked down at Caution, who was gasping for her last breathes as a bloody jagged pole was sticking through her stomach. Rage's hazel-green eyes stared coldly at her enemy as Caution wrapped her hands around the bloody pole and slowly began to transform back into her human state.

Rage's stomach slightly twisted at the sight of the puncturing pole as she stared at Caution. _I got revenge for Ghost…_ She thought quietly, _I killed her._ A twinge of guilt rolled through her body as she stared at her and then she slowly turned and began to walk away from her justice.

Clutch flew towards Sam and then tackled her to the ground in his gargoyle state. Rage gasped as she felt the weight of his stone body on top of her as she laid underneath him. "What the hell?!" She yelled as she tried to push Clutch off of her, but he was too heavy. When she placed her hands against his shoulders again, the cold stone of his skin transformed back into the warmth as he changed back into his human state. "What are you doing?!" She gasped as continued to try to push him off of her.

Clutch's stone gargoyle wings crumbled into ash on top of his back and around him and Rage. She slightly sat up and looked across his back and threw the crumbled ash she saw an injection needle in between his shoulder blades. _Noah…_ She gasped as she ran her fingers slowly down his bare back and wrapped her hands around the needle. With a tiny grunt she pulled the empty needle out and slid it across the ground away from them.

"Clutch?" She whispered as he laid on top of her. "Clutch?"

There was no response.

She carefully rolled him off of her and laid him on his back as she laid next to his side. "Clutch? Please…" She whispered as she checked his pulse, which was barely there. Her hazel-green eyes looked across the ground at the injection needle, _That was meant for me,_ she looked back at Clutch, _he saved my life._ "Please don't leave me…"


	44. Darkness Filled With Secrets

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 43: Darkness Filled With Secrets

Poseidon (Sean) was heavily breathing as he stared at Rush (Ashley) for a moment. His brown eyes glanced over at Rage (Sam) who was sitting next to Clutch (Noah), who seemed to be unconscious. _I need to get my team out of here… We're not alone._ He thought and then turned his attention back towards Rush when he heard the familiar sound of crashing waves coming closer towards him.

He placed his hands out in front of him and shot a wave out to counteract the oncoming wave. The loud clap of water echoed throughout the warehouse as the hydro powers collided against one another. Both men concentrated harder, which made the streams push back and forth between them as they desperately battled for the upper hand. They were both burned from the previous hits of harsh water across their bodies, but they both were continuing to fight.

_I have to protect my team,_ Poseidon thought through clenched teeth as he pressed all his might into his powers, and a surge of water pushed through Rush's wave and crashed into him.

Even though Poseidon was weak, he turned around and took off running towards Rage and Clutch as fast as he could. Clutch was his right wing man, and Rage was Spitfire's (Grace) right wing woman. They both were to take over in case of the event in which neither Spitfire or Poseidon could take charge over the team. They both had fought with one another millions of time, but when it came to protecting the team and fighting for them, both Rage and Clutch were a deadly pairing.

**BAM**

Poseidon flew across the room and crashed into a pile of wooden crates that shattered upon impact. His skin burned from the lashing wave that swarmed around his body, and then slowly subsided away from him.

"Where the hell do ya think ya goin?" The thick Texas accent of Rush said angrily as he stormed closer towards Poseidon.

"There's someone else here," Poseidon tried to plead to Rush, "we have to get out of here."

"Is that ya cheap accuse for givin' in?" Rush chuckled as he held his hands out in front of him. "Admit it, ya givin' up. Admit it."

Poseidon's brown eyes narrowed, "You're so dense. You're endangering everyone!" He shouted in his thick Australian accent as he placed his hands on the ground to push himself up.

"Ya excuse gets worse and worse," Rush smirked before shooting a wave straight into Poseidon's chest.

Poseidon gasped as the clap of water crashed into his chest and knocked the wind out of him. The water filled his mouth and nose, but luckily he could breath through the water as he gasped against the force of the wave. He grunted and a wave pushed off from the ground and straight into Rush, which flung him backwards and away from Poseidon.

"You don't listen," Poseidon huffed as he slowly stood up from the pile of shattered wooden crates and wiped the wet splinters of wood off of his body. He stared at Rush, who was sitting on the ground and beginning to slowly stand up.

"Ya pathetic," Rush huffed as he slowly stood up.

"Actually I think you would be the pathetic one in this case," Poseidon shrugged, "and if you won't listen then I'll force you to." He grunted before stomping on the ground, which made it begin to shake. The cement below Rush cracked and a large wave pushed up under his feet and then turned upside down and crashed him into the ground as hard as possible.

Poseidon sighed as he stared at the two large holes in the floor from the wave and then began to walk over to Rage and Clutch. "What happened?" He asked as he walked closer and closer.

Rage looked up at Poseidon and sighed, "I don't know," she shook her head as she kept her composure.

Poseidon looked down at Rage and sighed. She always was one of the strongest and hardest people on the team to get close to, so she never let anyone see her when she was hurting and when she was she just looked lost… And that's exactly how she looked as she sat next to Clutch's side. "What happened?" He repeated.

"He tackled me and when I looked on his back there was that needle stick out of him," She said as she gestured her head towards the needle on the ground.

Poseidon stared at the needle and then whispered, "We're not alone." He sighed. "We need to get him out of here."

Rage slowly stood up and slowly cracked her fingers, which were slowly morphing into claws, "He was protecting me," she sighed as her hazel-green eyes flashed yellow and her irises became slits but the rest of her body hadn't transformed, "I'm getting revenge on the sick bastard." She growled.

Poseidon slowly looked around at everyone who was oblivious towards the unconscious member on the ground and was continuing to fight each other. "Rage, this isn't the time," Poseidon sighed.

Rage's yellow eyes looked around in the shadows and then she spoke with determination and calmly, "I'm staying."

Rush slowly began to standup from the rumble of concrete that he crashed into and then looked over at Poseidon, who was standing near Rage and his green eyes looked down at the unconscious Clutch on the ground. _What the hell?_ He thought as he pulled himself out of the hole and then wiped the debris off of him.

He glanced about and saw that everyone was going about their business in fighting everyone else, but there was something strange in the air. _Something isn't right…_ He glanced back over at Poseidon and the glint of something in the shattered crates caught his eye. He turned and looked at the shattered crates, where he had pushed Poseidon into earlier.

He quietly walked over towards the crates and crotched down next to it, and in a shattered piece of wood, an injection needle was sticking out of it. Rush turned around and looked up into the darkness of the ceiling of the warehouse and gasped. _We aren't alone in here…_


	45. Some Things Are More Important Than

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 44: Some Things Are More Important Then Rivalry

Spitfire (Grace) stared into Aphrodite's (Mary-Lynn) violet colored eyes in anger, while Hell's Angel (Jazmine) stood by her side. She let out a harsh breath as she cracked her knuckles a couple times.

"Now what?" Hell's Angel whispered.

"We don't give up." Spitfire nodded, "Hit me again."

Hell's Angel took a deep breath in and felt a small warmth spread throughout her body and then she let out a soft breath as a whirl of fire spiraled into Spitfire's hand. "I'll take to the air," She whispered and with one thrust from her large black wings, she moved into the air.

_Here we go again._ Aphrodite thought as she kept her eyes on Spitfire and watched out of her peripheral vision as Hell's Angel took to the air. She glanced over at Rush, who seemed to be preoccupied. _Don't run…_ She reminded herself.

_She's not afraid…_ Spitfire thought curiously as she stared at Aphrodite, while the fire in her hand danced back and forth. She clapped her hands together and then turned them out towards Aphrodite, which shot a spiraled flame towards her. Aphrodite quickly took off running as she felt the heat from the flames following behind her, as Spitfire manipulated the fire to follow her.

Hell's Angel circled above the southern bell running for her life like a vulture in the sky. _I have to plan this right,_ she reminded herself before she was flying behind her. _Perfect._ She dove down towards Aphrodite and swept her up into the air. She quickly took off up into the air and held on tightly to Aphrodite's arms as she was about to throw her down into the ground, but she felt a strange feeling wash over her.

Spitfire closed her hands and stared up at Hell's Angel as her heart began to beat faster and faster. _Drop her… Drop her… _"DROP HER!" She shouted up to Hell's Angel, but she quickly realized it was no use.

"Kill her," Aphrodite said seductively as the idea of destroying one of her enemies excited her. Hell's Angel quietly breathed in as the warm sensation filled her lungs once again, and then she gasped as a sharp pain surged through her body.

Spitfire watched as Hell's Angel's body lurched forward in the sky and wobbled back and forth as she hovered. _What is going on?_ She watched as Hell's Angel's wing slowly began to flap slower and slower.

"What are ya doin?!" Aphrodite yelled as she looked back behind her at the large angel and then saw Hell's Angel's greenish-brown eyes roll in the back of her head. They slowly lowered to the ground and then Hell's Angel fell like a boulder in the sky with Aphrodite in her arms.

"Hell's Angel!" Spitfire shouted as she took off running towards where they were falling.

Aphrodite wiggled her way out of Hell's Angel's grasp and when she hit the floor, she quickly rolled to the side out of the way. The loud thud of Hell's Angel hitting the cement ground echoed throughout the warehouse. Aphrodite's violet colored eyes stared in horror at the unconscious angel and watched as the large black wings burst into the air with the sound of cracking bones. The black feathers fluttered down around her and Hell's Angel and then through the feathers, she saw Spitfire running towards them. Aphrodite quickly stood up and stumbled away from Hell's Angel and sat down against one of the cement walls of the sunken laboratory.

Spitfire slid across the ground to Hell's Angel's side, "Hell's Angel? Come on…" She whispered as carefully wiped the black feathers from her back and then stopped when she saw an injection needle sticking out of her back. She looked over at Aphrodite, who was cowering against the cement wall.

For the first time in Spitfire's time of being part of X², she actually felt bad for Aphrodite. She looked afraid and lost. Everyone knew that if it ever came to any other type of fighting besides hand-to-hand that she wouldn't survive, and everyone knew that she knew that too… and it was finally being tested.

Spitfire looked back down at the injection needle and quietly wrapped her hands around the cold, empty needle. She swallowed her breath and then pulled the needle from her back and stared down at the needle in her hands for a moment before sliding it across to Aphrodite's side. "Run," She said as she stared down at Hell's Angel. There was a moment of silence again before Spitfire looked back up at Aphrodite, "Run." She grunted.

Aphrodite stared at Spitfire and saw the desperation in her eyes. For the first time ever, a member of X² was looking out for a member of Chaos. She scrambled to her feet and ran as fast as she could over to Rush. "We have to go suga." She said nervously.

"Ah know," He said as he turned to her and unrolled his hand to show her an injection needle he had found in the pile of shattered crates.


	46. Stay And Die

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 45: Stay And Die

Octavian (Gabe) coughed in pain from the burning sensation in his lungs as he watched Hecate continually throw punch after punch at Miracle (Natalie). Octavian's ice blue eyes grew large as he watched Hecate trip over a broken piece of scientific equipment. His ice eyes glanced down at her quickly disappearing shadow, and then a large circular shadow thrust into the air and pushed Hecate up.

Hecate's dark blue eyes looked around quickly and then looked over at Octavian. She nodded her head to him and then rolled to her feet as she looked down at Miracle, who was looking extremely confused.

Miracle looked up towards the ceiling and saw Hecate onto of the large shadow and her silvery colored eyes warped into a deep gray colored before she turned her attention back towards the large shadow in front of her. She placed her palms together and moved them back and forth against one another in order to think of what to inject Octavian's shadow with.

Octavian saw Miracle's eyes and quickly retracted the shadow from underneath Hecate, who quickly fell towards the ground. His icey eyes stared at Miracle, who was smirking over at him.

_You've figured it out. _Miracle thought as her grey eyes warped back into their silvery luster.

Hecate tucked her body and fell faster towards the ground near Miracle, and when she was a couple feet away from Miracle she kicked her leg out. She continued to spin in the air with her leg extended. Her dark blue eyes swirled into a dark black as she felt the growing anger in her body start to take over again.

Miracle looked up and saw Hecate falling towards her and quickly jumped out of the way, as Hecate hit the ground. The cement beneath Hecate's leg shattered and sent a sonic wave underneath the cement towards Miracle. The ground cracked as it moved closer to Miracle, who was trying to run away, but the wave caught up to her. When it hit her feet, the ground beneath her burst and shattered in an explosion that catapulted her into the air.

Hecate slowly stood up to take off running towards Miracle, who was lying in the ground amongst the rubble in the pain to finish the job, but Octavian placed his hand on her shoulder. Hecate grabbed his wrist and squeezed, but even though it burned in pain Octavian didn't flinch; he knew that's what she wanted. She wanted him to runaway.

Slowly her black eyes swirled back into the deep blue color and her grip loosened from around his wrist. Her hand quietly slipped from off his wrist and back to her side as she stared at Miracle in disgust.

"Let me handle her," Octavian said in his thick southern accent as he walked closer towards her and his eyes quickly took note of all the little shadows in the rumble around Miracle.

He focused his attention on the rumble and slowly the shadows formed together and pinned Miracle against the rumble so she couldn't move. He stared down at her helpless body and his face was completely emotionless. He made sure that none of his shadows were touching her skin and that she couldn't touch his shadows; he was in complete control.

**BAM**

Octavian slid across the cement floor away from Miracle, which made his control over the shadows around her disappear. He looked up and saw Shocker (Lucas) standing there looking at him and then turning his attention to Miracle.

"Get out of here," Shocker said in his thick Scottish accent as he held his hand out to help Miracle up.

She carefully took his hand and stood up amongst the rumble and then stared at Octavian, "I have a score to settle," She grunted in her British accent.

"We're leaving." Shocker said more in a demanding tone than a statement.

Hecate walked over to Octavian, just as he was slowly standing up. "Alright?"

"Fine."

Miracle turned and looked at Shocker, "Since when did Chaos run?" She challenged and then gasped as she felt a stinging pain surge from her hand throughout her body. Her silvery eyes quickly changed to a dark grey as she gasped, and then her eyes began to flash back and forth between silver and grey colored. Her hand began to tremble as she turned it so the her palm side was facing her and Shocker, and a small, empty injection needle was sticking out of it.

Shocker's brown eyes looked in horror at the injection needle and then looked up at Miracle, _No… _He thought.

Miracle stumbled forward into Shocker's arms as her skin turned pale and her eyes continued to change colors as she looked into Shocker's eyes. "It's a virus," she gasped and then her eyes changed into a black color as she gasped and then closed her eyes. When she reopened them, her eyes were back to their normal silvery color and she carefully stood up from Shocker's arms. She gripped the needle and threw it on the ground.

"Let's go," Shocker nodded as her stepped aside to usher Miracle out of the building.

Miracle nodded and quickly took off running out of the warehouse with Shocker by her side. The other members of Chaos were already outside of the building and running away without looking behind.

All the members of X² watched as Chaos disappeared into the darkness of the outside night and leaving everything that had come for, and even leaving Shadow Runner (Arcane) behind.

Octavian looked down at Hecate with his icey blue eyes without saying anything. They both looked away from each other's gaze and looked over at the empty needle that Miracle had pulled out of her hand as the world around them began to move a lot slower.

Link and Void (Hiro) were only standing a couple feet away from Octavian and Hecate as they watched their rivals take off running in an instant. "What's going on?" Void whispered.

"They're scared," Linx said calmly and then looked over at Hecate, who was staring at the injection needle. "And maybe rightfully so…" She said nonchalantly as she pointed at the injection needle near Octavian and Hecate, which made Void look over at it.

Spitfire (Grace) had Hell's Angel's (Jazmine) head in her lap as she looked around at the other members of X². Her green eyes tried to stay strong because she was one of the leaders, but the truth was she was terrified. Chaos had never runaway from a fight before unless they were injured and members of her team were falling. She looked over at Poseidon (Sean) as though she was looking for some kind of answer.

Poseidon looked at Spitfire and then looked to his side to see Rage (Sam) standing in front of Clutch (Noah) as though she was protecting him. "Are you really staying?" Sean asked in his thick Australian accent.

Rage's hazel-green glanced over at him, "Is there a doubt in your mind?"

"You're fighting someone or something we can't even see."

"Whatever it is, it can't stay in the dark forever."

"Well it is." Poseidon reminded her.

Rage turned and looked at Poseidon and her hazel-green eyes flashed into her eyes cat eyes, but the rest of her body didn't transform, "Then I'll play in it's territory."

Counterstrike (Tonya) looked around at her team for a minute and then saw Frostbite (Seth) standing by himself. _We need to stay together. _She thought quietly as she walked over to him without saying a word. As she stood by his side, she noticed the injection needles lying around the warehouse and near her fallen members of her team. _Together we're sitting ducks._ She thought in slight panic as she looked around at her team, who had no idea what was going on.

Miracle stopped at the gaping hole, which made Shocker stop, "Why are you stopping?" He gasped as he looked back at X², who were still standing their ground against the faceless enemy.

"They're all going to die," She whispered in pain.

"What do you mean?" He gasped as he looked over at Miracle, who was rubbing the puncture from the needle earlier, but he couldn't actually see the wound.

Miracle held her hand up to Shocker so he could see the back of her palm, which looked diseased even though it didn't see to effect Miracle, "It's a virus," she took a deep breath in, "that kills both humans and mutants easily."

Dreamer (Dawn) looked around at her teammates and noticed the slight twinge of fear in every single one of their eyes. She quietly moved closer to Twista's (Saria) side and Twista instinctively wrapped an arm around Dreamer as she looked up into the darkness of the ceiling. "Don't leave my side," she whispered, "Stay close."


	47. The Key Is In Jeopardy

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 46: The Key Is In Jeopardy

"They're going to die?" Shocker thought in horror. He never waited anyone to die; in his mind it was all fun and dirty games. "But you absorbed it, right?" Shocker (Lucas) asked Miracle (Natalie) as he looked at X². "So if we need you to absorb it again you can cause you're immune now, right?"

"It's too powerful." She shook her head slowly, "The first time made me weak and it's part of my system now, but I can't take it in again."

Shocker looked amazed and confused at the same time, "What? But you're powers are to absorb diseases and give them to others."

"This one is different." She whispered as it hurt her to admit that a disease defeated her powers. "It has to stay dormant in my system or it'll kill me." Her silvery eyes locked on Shocker's brown eyes and her eyes seemed to flash to dark grey every now and then.

_Her body is still trying to fight it. I can tell because of her eyes. _"We need to leave then," Shocker grabbed her wrist and took off running away from the warehouse with her towards their team.

Poseidon (Sean) looked around with his brown eyes at his team, who seemed completely lost in their situation. _Alright. Think._ He told himself as he looked around at the fallen teammates. "**Everyone** get the injured people out of here." X² all turned and looked at Poseidon for a minute before he spoke again, "Now." _We need to get everyone out of here…_

After he saw the other members of X² start to move to help each other out, he turned to Rage (Sam) who was still scanning in the darkness with his feral senses. "I need you to get Clutch (Noah) out of here."

A dark figure in the shadows bounced in and out of Rage's vision, _Quit moving._ She thought in frustration as she ignored Poseidon.

He grabbed her bicep and turned her to look at him, "I need you to get him out of here." He grunted in his thick Australian accent.

Rage stared at Poseidon for a moment and then down at Clutch, "I almost had him."

"What?"

Rage turned back and looked at Poseidon. "It's a person. He's in the shadows, but he was moving too quickly." She sighed. "I almost had him though."

Poseidon turned and looked in the dark shadows and saw nothing, but still trusted Rage's instinct. "Well we need to get Clutch to safety first."

"Right," Rage nodded as she bent down to Clutch's side and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. She tried to lift him to his feet so that she could carry him out, but she stumbled forward, "I'm going to need help." She grunted to Poseidon.

"Alright," Poseidon nodded as he walked over to Clutch's other side and bent down. He wrapped his other arm around his shoulder and slowly lifted him up with Rage to carry him out of the building.

They only had a short time to get everyone out of the building before they all were killed. They were being stalked by unknown man in the shadows who enjoyed every minute of watching them struggle. _I'll destroy this disease called mutants…_The man in the shadows thought in disgust as he took aim at Poseidon's back. _No one is leaving._

Linx's two different colored eyes watched Poseidon and Rage carefully and quickly tuned out the rest of the world around her. She saw something quickly move in the air towards Poseidon, and without even thinking she used her telekinesis to stop it in the middle of the air. Once it was stopped in the air, it was easy to see it was another injection needle. Linx stayed calm as she didn't draw too much attention to herself. Her eyes slowly scanned around to see if she could stop any other needles.

Hecate and Octavian (Gabe) were standing off to the side of everyone who were trying to leave the warehouse in silence. Her deep blue eyes looked over at Poseidon when she heard a tiny glass vile hit the ground and noticed it was another injection needle. _Linx. _She thought quietly and then looked over at Octavian, who had his hand on his shoulder, "I thought you said you were alright…?"

Octavian looked down at her, "Ah am." Hecate raised an eyebrow at him as if questioning him again, "It's just sore."

Hecate nodded, "We should go; Poseidon wants us all out of here."

Octavian nodded, "Let's go then."

Hecate started to walk behind Octavian, but something made her stop and turn around. She saw a dark figure laying on the ground amongst the wooden crates that were behind her and Octavian. She slowly walked closer towards the figure and when she was just a couple feet away from him, she noticed an empty injection needle laying by his side.

Octavian turned around when he noticed that Hecate wasn't behind him anymore, and saw her crouched down by the crates. "Hecate?"

"I'll be fine. Go on ahead."

"Alright," Octavian said in unsure tone and then ran over to Poseidon, "Do ya need any help?"

"Get the car." Poseidon huffed as they continued to carry Clutch towards the gaping hole in the wall.

Octavian nodded his head and then took off running for the car. When he reached outside, he melted into the shadows outside and when he reemerged he was standing next to the car. He pressed his thumb on the scanner by the door, and once he was allowed access into the car, he quickly drove it into the warehouse compound grounds and near the gaping hole, where Poseidon and Rage were waiting for him.

Spitfire (Grace) carefully rolled Hell's Angel's (Jazmine) head off her lap and tried to pick her up, but failed. Counterstrike (Tonya) looked over at Spitfire struggling and sighed. She jumped down into the sunken equipment area where Spitfire was and got on the other side of Hell's Angel.

"Thanks," Spitfire nodded.

"I'm doing this for you. I don't like her," she said as she gestured with her head towards Hell's Angel.

Spitfire nodded her head and continued to move Hell's Angel towards the car. She knew that Counterstrike didn't like a lot of the girls in the house, but that she definitely was a team player when it came down to it.

Void (Hiro) turned to Linx and noticed that she was surveying the entire area carefully, "We should go."

"I have to stay," she said calmly as she continued to look around.

"But why?"

"Because I'm stopping him from killing anymore." She turned and looked at Void quietly, "The Dead Realm is now full of innocent people, but I can't send that many onto Limbo." She said as she zoned passed Void, which made him turn around to see a frozen injection needle floating in the air behind him.

Void turned back around to look into Linx's eyes and nodded, "Good luck." He said before taking off running to meet up with Frostbite (Seth) to run towards the car where the rest of their team was meeting up.

Linx looked over and saw Hecate dragging someone from the shadows. _What is she doing?_ She thought before hearing a grunt and then a gasp. She turned her attention back around just in time to see Frostbite fall towards the ground with an injection needle sticking out of the back of his calve. _I should have been paying attention…_ She thought and then quickly began to look around.

Hecate grunted as she used her super strength to lift Shadow Runner (Arcane) up in her arms. She carefully walked by Linx, nodded her head and continued to walk towards the door. She ignored the constant dropping of injection needles falling behind her because of Linx. She quietly got into the car just as Poseidon was walking out to head back into the warehouse.

Poseidon jogged passed Void, who was helping Frostbite towards the car, and ran towards the warehouse. He was standing in the gaping hole and looked around, but only saw Linx, "Come on Linx!" He shouted.

Linx nodded and took off running towards Poseidon as fast as she could, while needles whizzed passed her until she was finally a couple of feet away from Poseidon. She turned around and used her telekinesis and stopped two needles that were only a couple feet away from her face. Linx turned and stood behind Poseidon quietly, as he searched around the warehouse. _Where is she? _"Dreamer?"

"I got her!" Twista (Saria) shouted back to him as she held Dreamer (Dawn) closer to her body. "Go!" She shouted. Twista knew that if Dreamer was with her team that everyone would be endanger. She was the perfect bait to lure the maniac out, but at the same time she was the one thing **everyone** needed to protect.

_There she is…_ The man in the shadow smirked as his eyes narrowed onto Dreamer while he reloaded the injection needles. Once he clicked the needles into place and started to take aim at Dreamer, he let out a chilling cackle that echoed throughout the empty warehouse.

Dreamer pressed herself to Twista's side as she felt a shiver run through her body at the horrible cackle. Twista's hand pressed tighter against Dreamer's back as she waited patiently for the man to attack. Twista had decided in that moment that it didn't matter anymore, and the only thing that did was Dreamer; she was the key to everything in this era.


	48. The Virus Is The Cure To The Disease

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 47: The Virus Is The Cure To The Disease

Poseidon (Sean) and Linx ran from the gaping hole in the warehouse towards the car, and quickly got in. Poseidon quietly walked through the aisle of seats towards the front of the car to call Cannon (Jamal) and let him know about the situation, while Linx stopped just after the door and stared at everyone.

People were tending to the unconscious members, while the others were sitting waiting for something; anything. However, they needed a plan and there wasn't any way to create one at the moment.

"Jamal?" Sean huffed into the receiver.

"Sean? Are you alright?" Jamal asked in worry.

"There's someone in the warehouse trying to kill us."

"Chaos?"

"No! Someone different. He has a virus of some sort and he's infected Noah, Jazmine, Seth and some other guy we found in the warehouse."

Jamal scribbled the names on a piece of paper, "You need to get them back here as soon as possible."

"But what about the guy?"

"Forget him," Jamal huffed, "our teammates could die if I don't see them."

"We're on our way," Sean sighed as he hung up the receiver and returned back into the briefing area of the car, where everyone was tending to everyone else who was hurt.

"What'd Jamal say?" Sam asked as she stood next to Sean quietly.

"We need to leave."

Sam rolled her hazel-green eyes and sighed, "And I'm assuming that means me too…?"

"Yes."

"Then what are we waiting for?" She huffed.

"Twista is watching Dreamer."

"Why didn't you grab them both?"

"Because all three of us would be dead… Whoever is in there wants Dreamer."

Sam turned and looked at Sean in astonishment, "So you just left them?!"

"Twista has always taken care of her," Sean sighed and looked at Sam, "Trust me."

She swallowed her pride and walked away from Sean. She sat down in the passenger seat by the driver, and away from everyone else. Sean's brown eyes followed Sam and sighed. It was the feral's nature to act like that, and everyone knew to leave Sam alone when she was like that.

He turned back to his team and sighed. _We just have to wait now…_

A few minutes passed inside the car, but it seemed as though hours had passed by. Sean tapped his foot up and down impatiently as he heard painful murmurs from his teammates. _I can't stand this!_ He huffed and stood up, "I'm going in to get Dreamer." He said quietly as he stood up and started walking towards the back of the car to get out. When he reached the back, Linx was standing in front of the door with her arms folded in front of her.

"Linx, move." He sighed.

"You're being foolish." She said coyly. "Send people in who will come back."

"I'll be fine."

Linx looked away from him and then looked back up at him, "I'll go. I'm not afraid to die and I've already proven I can stop the needles."

"I'm going."

"You're foolish." Linx said quietly as her two different colored eyes stared into Sean's brown eyes.

Sean stared into her eyes for a moment and sighed, "Fine. You go."

Linx nodded her head and turned to leave when Gabe stood up, "Ah should go to."

"No," Sean grunted, "One person should go."

"Ah can get her through the shadows and out safely."

"Fine go," Sean threw his hands up in the air and walked away. _They can't let anything happen to Dreamer…_

"You're going to be alright Chica," Twista said calmly as she continued to scan the darkness with her brown eyes that had slight flecks of gold and blue in them. Her eyes never left from scanning the darkness as she spoke to Dreamer, "When I tell you to run, I need you to run." She whispered.

Dreamer looked up at Twista in fear, "What?" She gasped.

_I need to lure him out of hiding._ "I won't let anything happen to you." She said as she stepped away from Dreamer a little bit, but was still near her.

"But what happens if-"

"Have I ever let anything happen to you?" Twista questioned before glancing for a spilt second at her and then looking back into the darkness. _Where are you?_

"Well no…"

"Then trust me." Dreamer looked down at the ground for a minute and nodded before looking back at the gaping hole. Twista took another step away from Dreamer and stood about a foot away from her out in the open.

There was a whizzing sound in the air, and quickly Twista stuck her hand out in front of Dreamer, in front of her heart, and then gasped as the piercing sting surged through her hand and her body. The needle was sticking out of her palm, but all she did was turn and look at Dreamer to whisper, "Run."

Linx and Octavian stepped out from the back of the car and looked around the outside of the warehouse carefully. "We should enter out here so that whoever is in there isn't payin' attention to us." Octavian whispered in his thick southern accent.

"Agreed."

Octavian wrapped his arms around Linx small body and then melted them both into the shadow outside of the warehouse. When they reemerged they were inside amongst the wooden crates. They both saw Twista sitting on her knees and Dreamer running for dear life towards the gaping hole.

"I got her," Linx whispered, "You wait here."

"Right," He nodded and then looked at Twista, while Linx took off running towards Dreamer. _What is she doing?_ He thought and then he saw her pull out an injection needle from her palm and shatter it on the ground. _She's infected…_He thought in horror.

Linx's black hair with the bright red highlights underneath swayed back and forth violently as she ran towards Dreamer, who had yet to notice her running towards her. Her arms wrapped around Dreamer's small body and held her closely and then she turned just in time to stop an injection from hitting both of them with her telekinesis. Without skipping a beat, Linx grabbed Dreamer's wrist and took off running with her right behind her.

She pulled Dreamer in front of her and pushed her into Octavian's arms, before turning around and stopping a couple of injection needles in the air. She kept a coy look on her face before turning the needles around and shooting them off in the direction that they came from. She didn't care if she hit whoever was shooting them or not; she was concerned about Dreamer's safety.

Linx grabbed Octavian's hand just as him and Dreamer were melting into the shadows of the floor to go back to the car. Linx continued to hold onto Octavian's hand, but she turned around again and stopped another set of injection needles from hitting them. Dreamer's dark brown eyes watched as Twista stumbled to stand up, and she felt her heart break as she disappeared into the shadows. She wanted to fight with her. Twista wouldn't have been there if Dreamer wasn't there. She was protecting her.

"TWISTA!" Dreamer screamed out and then was softly muffled by the darkness of the shadow swallowing her away from the carnage to come.

They reemerged in the back corner of the car, and Dreamer was holding onto Octavian's arms for dear life as her small face was red from yelling for Twista. Linx quietly stepped away from them and sat down in the back of the car quietly as she rubbed the side of her neck. Octavian slowly let go of Dreamer, who slid down on the ground in pain as she felt hopelessly lost.

Twista slowly stood up and stared into the darkness. _She's safe…_ She thought in content as she stared into the darkness to watch an injection needle fly directly at her, but she used her powers to warp the needle until it exploded in front of her. Her brown eyes pierced through the darkness as wobbled back and forth slightly in pain. She could feel the virus running it's course quickly throughout her body as she stood there. The more her body tried to fight against it, the faster it grew and began to destroy her.

Twista stood there in the middle of the room confidently even though she could feel herself become more and more weak the more she stood there. "Ya gonna stay in the shadows?" She shouted out to whoever she was to fight.

"Nightmares are only in the darkness, and that's what you can call me: Nightmare," The man chuckled in the depths of the darkness.

"So you have name, huh?" Twista chuckled, "Well you know how they say you get rid of a nightmare, right?" She paused, "You turn on the light." She smirked in her thick New York accent both using her powers to flick on the broken overhead warehouse lights.

The entire warehouse lit up with Twista in the middle of it. Her eyes scanned around and saw a man dressed in completely black except his dark brown hair was free and his dark brown eyes with a vertical scar over the right eye could be seen. "So you've seen me," He smirked.

"I guess so," She shrugged as her injected hand began to tremble by her side.

He chuckled lightly at the sight of her hand, "You only have a few minutes to live," he said calmly as he grabbed a couple more injection needles and twirled them in his hands, "and once you're gone she'll be mine."

Twista felt her blood begin to boil at the thought of him hurting Dreamer that she balled her hand into a fist and forgot about the pain in her body, "Then let me introduce you to **my** reality." She said before taking a deep breath in.

The boxes below Nightmare warped and twisted until they disappeared and everything else in the warehouse melting into the floor until there was nothing left in the warehouse but her and Nightmare. Her brown eyes stared at Nightmare as she melted the injection needles in his hands until they burst into bubbles that floated to the top of the ceiling.

"You see," Twista smirked as she walked closer towards Nightmare and more bubbles burst from within his jacket, "my power is to warp reality into **whatever** I please." She chuckled as she stood in front of him, "Whatever I can think of, it can happen." She grunted as she fought through the pain, "So if I wanted you dead right now, it could happen." She got close to his face as her face began to slowly have dark purple rings appear on her tanned Latina skin.

"It doesn't matter if I die, so will you and everyone else I infection." He smirked.

"But at least you can't infect anyone else," She grunted as she turned and walked away from him as the wooden crates reappeared back in the warehouse. The bubbles that had come from Twista warping the injection needles sat at the ceiling and slowly changed from the translucent rainbow luster, to a harsh grey and quickly fell towards the ground. The boulders crashed onto the ground and on top of Nightmare with a horrific crashing sound that shook the warehouse.

When the warehouse shook and echoed from the crashing boulders, Twista felt the vibration run through her weak body. Her heartbeat began to slow down as the pain quickly intensified and then seemed to stop in a euphoric feeling. She quietly collapsed onto the ground as more dark purple rings appeared on her frail body.


	49. It's Never Easy

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 48: It's Never Easy

"Take me back!" Dawn shouted at Gabe as her dark brown eyes started to well in tears. She unclipped the face mask that covered her nose and mouth and threw it on the ground, "She's in there because of me. Take me back!" The members of X² watched in silence as Dawn pleaded to go back for Twista. No one would say anything, but everyone could feel the pain in her words. Dawn looked over at Sean, who was standing near the driver's seat watching her, "Please." she pleaded.

Sean's heart broke to see one of his members hurt as much as Dawn was hurting, and not mention he had developed a soft spot for the younger member. He opened his mouth for a minute to say something back, but slowly closed it. "I'm sorry Dawn, I can't let you go back."

Dawn gasped in disappointment and then she was slightly startled when she heard the clashing within the warehouse. She jumped to her feet, "Please let me go," she begged.

Sean closed his eyes and then looked at Gabe, "Go find her."

Gabe nodded his head slowly and melted into the shadows in the back of the car, while Dawn waited anxiously for him to return. Her heart was beating so hard that she could feel in throughout her small body. Tonya watched as Dawn stood in the middle of everything, alone to everyone as she waited. She quietly stood up and walked over to her to stand by her. She wrapped one of her arms around her in comfort as she waited with her.

Everyone in the car quietly exchanged looks as the situation became more real to all of them. People looked at the fallen members as they quietly struggled to gasp for breath, and tiny dark purple rings began to form on their body. They weren't immortal and the teammates that had become the only family most of them ever knew, we're dying in front of their very eyes.

Grace sat with Jazmine's head in her lap as she kept a cold cloth against her forehead, which was burning up with every minute. She quietly whispered to Jazmine in hopes of hearing a familiar voice would keep her alive, "You can't leave us Jaz. We need you." She had always fought with Jazmine by her side and they had grown very close over the years, "I know we all fight and bicker, but that's what family does and if you died…" Her voice trailed off as she heard Jazmine murmur in pain.

Hiro stopped walking in between Noah and Seth and looked over at Grace and sighed. She was right; they were a family no matter and if they lost one it would never the same. He slowly turned his head away from looking at her and continued to tend to other two fallen members. He carefully dabbed the dark purple rings on Seth's neck as he could feel the burning through the cold washcloth. He laid the washcloth on top of Seth's neck and monitored him for a minute.

Hecate ran a washcloth under the cold water of the sink and then rang it out before walking back over to the stranger's side. She stared at her reflection in his dark black sunglasses as she laid the washcloth on his forehead. She never was one for taking care of others, but she felt that since she brought him aboard that it was her responsibility. She sighed quietly as she looked at him and then turned around to see Linx still rubbing the side of her neck.

She quietly walked over to Linx and sat down by her side, "You alright?"

Linx kept her hand on the side of her neck, "I'm fine."

"You keep rubbing your neck."

"Stiff neck." She said calmly.

Hecate stared into Linx's two different colored hazel eyes for a minute and sighed. _She's hiding something._ "If you say so."

"I do," Linx sighed.

Hecate nodded her head and stood up to tend back to the stranger. As she softly moved the cold washcloth over his burning face she glanced back at Linx, who had gone back to rubbing her neck. In that moment, Hecate became worried about Linx for the first time ever. She was her best friend and the closest person to ever understanding her, and the idea of something hurting Linx actually scared her.

Hiro walked away from Seth and over to Noah and carefully laid a cold washcloth on his forehead. He was one of their leaders, and one of the strongest. He was gentle and kind, but he was always the picture of stability in the team, and now he had fallen. It was the one person Void felt the closest to, but at the same time felt so distant from. They had a mutual respect for one another, which was the strongest bond they could share.

He quietly crouched down by Noah side and spoke softly so that no one could hear his words. "My mother always told me that there probably was no meaning to life, but that I would find interesting things along the way, and I have… You can't leave now."

Sam kept her feet against the dashboard in bitter silence as everything played over in her head: Lyndsey's death, Noah's collapse, and for the first time X² running away. She glanced slightly over her shoulder at Noah as Hiro was whispering to him. Seeing Noah that helpless made Sam terrified on the inside because they were partners in almost everything. From the team to schoolwork, they were with each other, and now he wasn't.

Hecate turned back around and sat down next to Linx again in silence. She knew something was wrong, but Linx didn't want to worry anyone with her problems. So she quietly sat and would sit there until Linx was ready.

"Do you think it's possible to kill death?" Linx whispered as she slowly moved her hand from her neck, but her hair fell in front of where her hand was.

"What?"

"I was thinking about it," she sighed, "I've never been afraid to die because I'm practically like death… So do you think I'm able to be killed?"

"What? Why? Linx what are you talking about?" Hecate whispered in fear.

Linx looked down for a minute and then turned and looked at Hecate was a smile of content on her face, "Everything is going to be alright."

"What?" Hecate whispered as she tried not to call attention to them and then she looked down at Linx's hand to notice a tiny dark purple ring developing. "Linx…" Hecate gasped as she felt her stomach drop. She quietly looked up at her and softly brushed her black hair away from her neck to see a tiny cut that looked like it had been made from a needle that barely missed injecting her.

"Everything will be alright… Trust me." She nodded as she looked at Hecate. "I have to go now."

"Where are you going?"

"I don't know, but please do not worry." She whispered as she placed her burning hot hand against Hecate's and then quietly faded away.

Hecate sat there staring at where Linx was as if waiting for her to return, but she knew she wasn't coming back. _Please don't leave me…_ She thought quietly. She never realized that Linx made her feel part of something until Linx was gone, because she now felt alone once again.

Sean looked over his shoulder at Sam as she was looking at Noah and a wave of pain washed over him. He saw her turn away and look out the passenger window and he couldn't help but feel for her. He turned his attention back to his team and saw they all in pain for the first time ever. He wanted so badly to say something that would make everything alright, but there was nothing to say. His brown eyes looked around and didn't see Linx anywhere, he looked at Hecate, who looked at him in pain and then looked away. Even though Sean didn't understand what happen, he didn't need to ask. There was a strange exchange of silent words between him and Hecate that made him understand.

Slowly Gabe reemerged from a shadow in the back of the car with his head hung low. Dawn stepped forward towards Gabe with the most hopeful look on her face. Everyone in the car looked at Gabe and instantly they all held their heads low because they knew what was to come. Gabe looked at Dawn and quietly held out a tiny brown bound book to her, "Ah'm so sorry darlin'."

Dawn felt her heart sink within her body and shatter as she stared at the book. She knew what it was; it was Saria's memory drawings. Her dark brown eyes began to sting with tears as they began to build against her eyes as she looked lost. She quietly touched the rough leather and when she did the tears spilt out onto her red cheeks in pain. She gasped for air in between crying as Gabe quietly walked passed her with his held hung low.

Tonya quietly stepped forward to Dawn and placed her hand on her shoulder, and in an instant, Dawn turned around and buried her head face into Tonya's stomach. Her tears stung her cheeks as she gasped from breath in between crying. Her world felt as though it had shattered because the one stable thing she relied on was Saria.

Sean quietly stepped into the driver's seat and started up the car to take everyone home. The soft hum of the motor buzzed throughout the car, but the only sound anyone could hear was Dawn's cries of pain. It echoed in their souls and made all of them feel as lost as Dawn felt in that moment.

Inside the warehouse, there was nothing but an eerie silence that told a story of the carnage that had been spilt against the cement floors. A soft cough came from a dark corner, followed by the gasping of breath echoed in the emptiness of the warehouse. Saria had prompted herself against a cold cement wall of the warehouse as she heard the soft hum of the X² disappear in the distant.

The flecks of gold and blue twinkled in what little light was left in the warehouse as her brown eyes became increasingly heavy the more she struggled to stay alive. Her breathes were becoming shorter and shorter the more she fought against her body, but she had stayed true to her promise; she had protected the key, but more importantly, she had protect the only friend she had ever had.

"Goodbye Dawn… My little dreamer…"


	50. Waiting Game

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 49: Waiting Game

The car pulled up in front of the lavish X² mansion, where Jamal (Cannon) was waiting outside with stretchers for the injured members. His heart was racing within his chest out of anticipation for what was to come out of the car. He had no idea what to expect, or how he was going to fix it, which terrified him. He had researched everything Sean had told him and found nothing even close to what was described.

The back doors of the car opened up and slowly people began to bring out the injured people covered in dark purple circles. Grace and Hiro carefully stepped out of the car with Jazmine in their arms, and waited until Jamal wheeled a stretcher over to them. They softly placed her on top of it, and Jamal's brown eyes went wide at the sight of the dark purple circles, _I've never seen anything like this…_ "Take her to the medical area. I'll be down in a minute." He accidentally barked the order to Grace.

Hiro climbed back into the car to help Gabe carry out Seth to the awaiting stretcher. Once again, Seth was also covered in the dark purple circles and shivering even though his skin was burning to the touch. "Gabe follow Grace with him."

Everything seemed to be playing out in slow motion to everyone, but the truth was everyone was hushing to try to save them. It was all surreal and felt like any minute now they would wake up and it would all have just been a terrible dream.

Hiro and climbed back into the car as Sean was carefully lifting Noah from the bench. Without saying a word, Hiro got on the other side and picked him up. Sam quietly listened as they carried him off the car, and then she watched through the side mirror as they placed him on a stretcher. She watched as more dark circles formed on his body as Sean wheeled him towards the medical lab.

Hecate grunted as she picked up the stranger in black and carried him off the car and placed him on a stretcher.

"Who is this?" Jamal asked as he looked over the man.

"I don't know," she shrugged as she wiped her platinum blonde hair from her face, "I found him at the warehouse."

"I'll take him to the medical center," Jamal nodded as he turned the stretcher to head back to the house, but the stranger's hand wrapped around Hecate's wrist, which made Jamal stop.

Hecate's dark blue eyes looked down at his hand and then over at him in surprise. "My name is Arcane… And I'm so sorry," He whispered before his hand slipped from his wrist and fell lip against the stretcher.

Jamal was at first in shock before he realized what had happened. He quickly ran with the stretcher towards the medical lab to tend to Arcane, while Hecate stood there staring into the house where Jamal had disappeared into. Hecate touched her wrist where Arcane's hand had been and felt the cold still against her wrist; it was the first time that he had felt cold since she had been tending to him.

Tonya sat in the car still with Dawn's face still buried in her lap as the young member held onto Saria's memory book for dear life. Sean climbed back into the car and looked down at Tonya and Dawn with a sad look on his face. Without saying a word, he carefully scooped her up into his arms and carried her out of the car with Tonya walking behind him.

Quietly Sean carried Dawn into the mansion with Tonya, Hecate and Hiro walking behind him. When they reached the door, Hiro turned around to see where Sam was but she was nowhere in sight; the only thing to be seen was the passenger door where she had been sitting left wide open. He lowered his head before turning around slowly to walk into the mansion.

Sean walked into the medical area after putting Dawn in her room. He nodded to Tonya, Hecate, Grace, Gabe and Hiro who were waiting there to for Jamal to come out and tell them any form of news.

The office door slowly opened as Jamal stepped out into the waiting area, where everyone was sitting, with his head hung low. He looked up at everyone and sighed as he saw the hopeful looks on their faces. "The good news is that none of you are infect with being in contact with the others…"

"And the bad?" Hiro asked quietly.

"The bad news is I don't know what the virus is, so I can't treat it." An eerie silence filled the waiting room as a couple people exchanged looks with one another, but everyone felt helplessly lost. "I might be able to find a cure in a couple days - if we have that long - but for now you can't seem… The only thing we can do now is let it run it's course." Jamal nodded before quietly slipping back behind the office door.

"So what now?" Tonya asked to break the silence.

"We go about our daily lives until told otherwise," Sean shrugged.

"Half our team is down and we're supposed to go about our daily lives?!" Tonya asked in surprise of Sean's comment.

"Do you have any better ideas?"

Tonya sighed in defeat, "No."

"Then until anyone does, that's the plan." Sean nodded before slowly turning and walking out of the medical area.

Jamal quietly walked back into the dimmed medical area where he had the infected members of the team setup side by side. They all had oxygen masks over their faces in order to force them to breath, since they all had stopped by the time Jamal got them to the medical lab. I.V.s were inserted into their hands to provide some sort of nutrients in their weakened bodies.

Jamal's brown eyes looked over each patient and sighed, _If I don't find a cure tonight they'll all be dead by morning…_ He thought quietly. This was his family and he was going to be the last person to see them die.

Hours passed in the day, but to everyone in the mansion it felt as though days had passed. No one could sleep that night, nor did anyone want to because every time they closed their eyes they saw one of their members fall, or they saw them die. It hurt too much to sleep, but it hurt too much to wait.

Jamal sat in front of his large computer feverishly typing away to find anything that could keep his team alive even if for a little longer, but there was nothing. No information of dark purple circles with fever sweats; Nothing including short breathes or no breathes at all. He had been working for hours and had kept his notepad next to him at all times to write down any useful information, but the pad was still blank. There was literally nothing.

"You won't find anything," a thick Scottish voice said calmly from behind Jamal and across the room.

Jamal quickly turned around and saw Lucas sitting in a chair near the infected patients. "How did you get in here?"

"I know this place like the back of my hand," he smirked, "but don't worry, your secrets are safe with me."

Jamal slowly stood up and walked towards Lucas, "What do you want?"

"To help," he shrugged nonchalantly. "I see that three of your members and stranger was infected… Well one of our member was infected also."

"Who?"

"Natalie, or as you know her as Miracle."

"How could she have been infected? Her power is to control diseases."

"This is something our little girl couldn't control."

"So you want to help." Jamal raised a curious eyebrow at him before looking over at his patients, "What do you know about medicine?"

"I know nothing about medicine."

"Then how are you going to help?"

"I have my ways."

"Let me guess, you want to work on finding a cure so you can cure Miracle, right?"

"Wrong. I want to help to insure her happiness."

_Her?_ Jamal looked confused. "What do you mean? Who is 'her'?"

"It doesn't matter her name. In due time you'll see why I'm helping you," He said calmly as he spoke in riddles.

"So how are you going to help?"

Lucas carefully fished inside of his long trench coat and pulled out a carefully folded handkerchief. "This is how," he said as he very carefully unfolded the handkerchief in front of Jamal.

Jamal's heart was raising as he waited patiently for Lucas to unveil what he was hiding. Lucas finally finished unwrapping the handkerchief and in the middle of it was four tiny red vials. "What is it?" Jamal asked as he look at the tiny tubes.

Lucas carefully lifted one of the vials up to hold it in between the two of them, "It's blood."

"Blood? A blood transfusion what cure them, and that's definitely not enough for four people."

"No, no, no. Listen to me for a minute brainy." Lucas rolled his brown eyes at Jamal and then took a deep breath. "Chaos harvest blood, but not any; Miracle's blood. Her blood can cure and kill so it's the perfect weapon. The is a vile of untainted, before the virus blood, cure blood." Jamal mouth fell slightly open as he listened, "In theory, if you give a little of this blood to each person, her blood will absorb the virus and in theory, cure them."

Jamal let out a gasp of relief before looking at Lucas, "But how is Miracle doing since she was infected?"

"She's fighting and it's a hard fight, but she's getting there. The good news for your team is that Miracle can never use this virus back on anyone unless she was willing to kill herself."

Jamal nodded his head slowly, "Thank you." He whispered.

Lucas rewrapped the handkerchief up and held it out to Jamal and smirked, "I'm not doing this for anyone but her."

Jamal carefully took the handkerchief in his hands and watched as Lucas quietly left the medical area. He stood there in the middle of the laboratory in silence as the conversation between him and Lucas played over in his head, before he looked down at the handkerchief in his hand. _Right._

He quietly walked over to his work station where he attached a tiny rubber tube to the top of the vials, and then attached a needle to the other end of the rubber tube. He placed the four vials on a tray and walked over to each person. He carefully struck the needle in the left front shoulder where their major artery was and clipped it to hang upside down above their heads. Now all that was left, was to wait.


	51. Peaceful Reminders

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 50: Peaceful Reminders

Months had passed and seasons had changed for X², and still that night in the warehouse was a subject no one talk of. The team took the hardest blow since the original X-Men were killed. Everyone was so lost and everyone felt alone, but at the same time they felt so close.

There was constant reminders to the entire team of their unity and family values in the beautiful garden behind the mansion. Overlooking the luscious fountain was the tombstone of Seth, with his codename of Frostbite was scrolled across the top of it, while his name, birth date and death date were below. Seth's body rejected Miracle's blood which made him die of complications from the virus.

Amongst the tulips in the garden another tombstone was planted with Jazmine's name on it. Her codename was scrolled on top, much like Seth's, with her name, birth date and death date below her codename. Underneath all of that, Grace had a message inscribed on the stone that read: _A friend, a partner, a sister and an angel in disguise. _Jazmine had died for the same reason that Seth did, but the strange part was when her heart stop beating her wings sprouted from her back for the last time ever.

Under the large willow tree was another tombstone with Linx's name on it. However, unlike the other tombstones the only thing on the stone was her name. No one knew anything more about Linx than that, but that's all that really needed to be on it; it was fitting for her.

Each tombstone reminded the entire mansion of that night and it kept those fallen members memories alive within everyone. Noah and Arcane's blood had matched Miracle's and they had managed to stay alive, but still comatose. They had become a symbol of survival for the team, and a form of hope. Aurora (Satine) had started to recover from her eating disorder and was soon to be back in the field as soon as Jamal had given her the okay to do so. She was only bright side to X² that had happened recently.

Grace crouched down by Jazmine's tombstone and laid a small bundle of red roses on top of the stone quietly, while Sean stood behind her. Her fingers carefully traced over the cold stone as her green eyes read the stone. _I miss you…_ She thought as she stood up and walked back to Sean. They both stood there for a minute staring at the dark stone as the different colored tulips swayed back and forth in the wind.

Grace took a deep breath in and quietly spoke, "Things have changed…"

"I think that's the understatement of the year Grace," Sean chuckled.

Grace softly laughed as she nodded her head, "I meant things have changed between us."

"I know what you meant," Sean said quietly as he continued to stare at Jazmine's tombstone.

"It's just that-"

"We're too good of friends," Sean interrupted.

Grace hung her head down and nodded, "Yeah."

Sean turned to face Grace and smile contently, "It's better this way."

"Agreed." Grace smiled back, and Sean slightly leaned in and kissed her softly on the cheek.

Tonya's green eyes stared out the window of the kitchen as Sean leaned over and kissed Grace's cheek, and then she quickly turned away. She poked at her food with her spoon a couple times as she tried to ignore the weird feeling she had.

"Ya alright Tonya?" Gabe asked in his thick southern accent.

"Fine."

"Ya don't seem fine."

Tonya dropped her spoon against her plate in annoyance, "I'm fine."

The night had become Hecate's favorite time of night since the warehouse; it was peaceful, calm and she could be alone. She quietly stepped out into the garden that was lightly lit from the full moon light that reflected off of her platinum blonde hair. Everything was still and the only thing that could be heard was the wind softly whistling.

She calmly walked towards the large willow tree like she did every time she went into the garden. A chill ran over her body as her dark blue eyes locked on the dangling branches as they swayed from side to side. Every time she walked towards the willow the time that Linx said goodbye played over in her head. It was Linx's willow after all.

The branches swayed from side to side in fluid dance, and when there was a slight part in the branches Hecate's eyes grew large in disbelief. There she was standing by her tombstone in all her glory. _Linx?_ She watched as the branches swayed back and then opened again to reveal nothing. Hecate walked up to the branches and pushed them aside in hopes that she would be standing there, but there was nobody.

Her shoulders fell in disappointment as the only thing underneath the willow was the simple tombstone that read her name. She crouched down in front of it quietly and traced her fingers over the black lettering of her name in silence. It was cold to the touch and yet it always gave Hecate some comfort every time she did it.

"I hope you're doing alright wherever you are," Hecate whispered as she studied the stone in front of her.

"I'm doing a lot better now," a calm voice quietly said.

Hecate looked up above her in the treetop branches and saw Linx sitting on a branch in her signature big long-sleeved shirt and jeans. Her mouth fell open in amazement and disbelief. She looked so different from the last time she saw her, but it still was the same Linx. Her hair was now long, but it still had her bright red highlights underneath it, and she looked older now.

"How?" Hecate gasped as she slowly stood up.

Linx carefully jumped down from the tree branch and stood in front of Hecate with a soft smile on her face, "I guess you can't kill death." She shrugged.

Hecate slowly walked over to Linx and stood in amazement and awe at her friend returning. "But…"

"I was in the Dead Realm. Many innocent people died that night and I had to do something about it." She sighed, "I also had to recover myself." She pushed the sleeve of her shirt up to reveal the once dark purple circle that was around the bone on her wrist was now a black circle that looked much like a tattoo.

Hecate let out a gasp of relief before walking over to Linx quietly and wrapping her arms around her. Nothing was said between them because nothing needed to be said. Hecate took a step back and looked at Linx for a minute; she had definitely changed, "So what brought you back now?"

"Grimm passed on some information to me that I need to research."

Hecate raised an eyebrow at her, "What information?"

"It's about Hiro."

"Ah Hiro; our fellow mysterious person of the mansion."

Linx chuckled, "That's the one."

"Then we need to go to the library," Hecate nodded her head and turned around to walk back into the mansion.

The large double wooden doors to the library quietly opened as Linx followed Hecate inside. _So much has changed since I left._ Linx thought as she looked around with her two different colored hazel eyes.

"Jamal made a section dedicated to mutants throughout history, including us," Hecate said as she turned down a long aisle of books where about half the shelves were filled and the rest were empty. "Here we are."

Linx looked up at the bindings of the books and side, "Alright," she said quietly as she looked around for the book she was looking for. "What would it be under?"

"His codename, so Void." Hecate said as she ran her finger of the bindings while she scanned for the right book. "Here." She whispered as she pulled a book for the shelf. "This is the one you want."

Linx walked over and looked at the book Hecate was holding quietly. She carefully took it and walked over to the nearby table to sit down. Hecate followed behind her and then stopped short of the table for a minute, "Do you want to do this alone?" She whispered.

"If you wouldn't mind."

Hecate shook her head, "I'll see you in the morning."

"Goodnight Hecate," She smiled softly before flipping the book open.

She carefully turned page after page looking for the section about Void until she finally found it. Her two different colored eyes quietly read over each word as she sat in the silence of the library by herself reading everything she could find on him, until it got to his family members. She flipped the next page and it was ripped out. Linx checked and rechecked the pages over and over again as she tried to find the missing the page, but it was no use; it was gone. _Why would it be ripped out?_ She thought as she looked around in the empty mahogany library and then sighed. _He has to be hiding something…_


	52. Pull The Clutch On Rage

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 51: Pull The Clutch On Rage

The wind in the garden washed through in a chilly breeze of silence in the night. The mansion was dark and quiet, unlike it's usual hustle and bustle during the day. The night was calmly, comforting and most of all silent. However, for one person it was the best time of day but the worst at the same time. It meant time to think, to reflect and realize.

Sam sat on a long branch in a large tree that faced the back of the mansion. Night was the only time that Sam was willing to set foot on the mansion grounds; no one knew she was there, so no one could bother her. She had disappeared for months, but instead of going to her gang's house, she wandered. She more ran from her thoughts than anything.

She sat in the tree with one leg prompted up to her chest, while the other dangled off the branch. Her arm rested on top of her knee as her hazel-green eyes stared into the bedroom in front her. She sat on that same branch, in that same tree every night in hopes of seeing something different. However, every night she saw the same thing: Hiro walking into the room and turning off the light to go bed.

She hated the night. It meant time for her to remember, to blame and to hurt. Every night she remembered the warehouse and every detail that haunted her. She ran from the mansion and X² because she was impatient and couldn't stand to lose. She blinked her eyes slowly as she watched Hiro turn the light off once again, just like every night before.

Sam quietly jumped down from the high branch in the tree onto the moist garden grounds. She took a deep breath in as the wind blew through, and she embraced the familiar smells once again. She slowly stood up and turned to walk away from the mansion once again, but she stopped when she got to the large gate. She wrapped her hands around the cold metal bars for a minute as she closed her eyes. Visions of the past spent in the mansion flashed through her head as she became lost in her memories.

"You can't keep running," A soft voice said on the other side of the bars.

Her eyes shot open and stared into the dark brown eyes with gold flecks of Lucas. His arms were lazily through the bars as he leaned forward. She let out a small laugh and let go of the bars, "I should have known."

"You can't keep running Sammy."

She cringed at the nickname, "What are you talking about?"

"You'll be surprised if stay," he smirked in his thick Scottish accent, "everything is alright now."

Sam stared at him for a little bit, "Quit talking riddles."

"Let's just say I did you a favor."

Sam rolled her eyes in annoyance, "I told you never to do favors for me again."

"I know, I know," Lucas chuckled, "after that day in the alley you said no more favors."

"Exactly," She sighed, "you saved my life and that's a big enough favor."

"Which is why you fraternize with the enemy," he winked.

Sam sighed in slightly embarrassment, even though she wouldn't let Lucas see it, "So why did you do me another favor?"

"I'm sick of seeing you run," he said bluntly.

"I'm not running."

"Then what do you call this?" He questioned, and Sam looked away from him. "Exactly… This is your home. This is what makes you happy," he paused, "and I just want you to be happy."

Sam laughed aloud, "You're going soft on me."

Lucas chuckled, "No. You were chosen to protect the first key, and now you've been given another chance."

"I was never chosen. I choose myself to."

"Exactly, so do it again." He paused, "Prepare her." Sam looked away from a minute and then looked back at Lucas. "You're one of the strongest here, which is why you're a leader. You will protect your family at all cost, even if that means your death, which is where I come in," he smirked, "I protect you."

"But why? Why are you helping me when you know what I'm supposed to do."

"Because I want to see this era change, which means you have to stay alive and stay here. You never used to run, but since Ghost died, anytime you're not happy, you run… Which is why I did you that favor." He smirked. "Now are you still going to run?"

Sam stared ahead of her at the empty road and then looked back at the mansion, "What if I do?"

"Then I'll follow you, because no matter how far you run, you always return here."

"You really have a thing for me, huh?" Sam chuckled.

"No," Lucas chuckled, "I'm just waiting for a change, and I know you and your team can do that."

"Then why don't you fight with us?"

"Because someone has to prepare your team," He smirked.

Sam softly smiled and placed her cold hand on top of his warm hand in silence. Her eyes looked into his before she slipped her hand from his and started to walk back towards the mansion. Her heart raced as she stared ahead at the tall, dark building.

Sam quietly walked through the dark mansion as she stared at every change that had happened since she left. Rooms were painted differently, furniture was moved around, and new addition were added, but no matter what had changed, the familiar scent hadn't changed.

She quietly walked down the long stairwell to the underground basement where the medical area was in silence. Memories of the night at the warehouse flashed through her head over and over with every step she took. When she reached the door to the medical area she stopped for a minute as she could literally feel the weight on her again. It stung skin and all she wanted to do was run; it was easier.

Her ears picked up the soft stepping of someone feet, _Now or never._ She thought as she pushed through the door and into the waiting room area. She walked over to the office door and tried it, but it was locked. She sighed as she reached into her auburn colored hair and pulled out a booby pin. _Always keep one handy… _She bent it open and then stuck it in the lock. With a couple wiggles, she heard the lock pop and she quickly went inside the office.

She quietly slipped into the dark medical area where Jamal was nowhere to be found. She heard the soft humming of oxygen flowing in a lightly lit area in the corner. She slowly walked towards it, and stopped when she saw what she was running from: Noah.

It was the first time she had seen him since the warehouse. He was slightly prompted up in his bed with a oxygen mask placed over his mouth and nose. His sandy blonde hair was longer, but was still shaggy like she had remembered him. He looked peaceful and calm. She cringed as she walked closer towards him at the sight of the different needles poking and prodding in and out of him.

She carefully sat down in the chair next to his bedside and pulled one of her knees up to her chest, while she let the other one dangle to the floor. She rested her arm on top of knee, like she always did and watched him as he slowly took the oxygen in. Her hazel-green eyes traveled down the I.V. tube until her gaze fell upon his hand where the needle was taped to.

"I heard you left," a voice whispered.

Sam's head shot up and looked into the once familiar grayish-blue eyes, "I… I thought you were dead."

Noah chuckled softly, "Not quite." He said as he carefully removed his oxygen masked.

"Don't you need to keep that on?"

"Jamal does it as a precaution in case we quit breathing in our sleep."

Sam slowly nodded, "I see." She couldn't believe it. He was alive, and talking to her. He hadn't died. "How?" She finally asked after a couple seconds of silence.

"Jamal had a sample of Miracle's blood from before she was infected,"

_Lucas…_ Sam thought in amazement, before looking at Noah. He was really alright. "So when will you be out of here?"

"I don't know," Noah smirked, "I kinda like it here. Jamal waits on me hand and foot and it's got it perks." He chuckled.

Sam laughed as she shook her head, "Then I guess I'm holding down the fort until you get back on your feet."

"So you're staying?" He raised a hopeful brow at her.

"I guess so." She smirked.

Noah sighed in relief, "Good."

The was a long silence between the two of them as they just looked at each other for awhile. They argued and they fought; fists were thrown and blood was drawn, but no matter what there was some strange connection between the two of them that neither one of them could deny.

Sam let out a small sigh of relief that it wasn't another one of her dreams about him. "I should let you get some sleep." She said as she stood up from the chair.

Noah watched her stand up and he carefully wrapped his hand around her wrist, "Stay." Sam looked down at his hand around her wrist and then looked at him. "Just for the night," he said softly, "Jamal won't let anyone in here and it's nice to have some company."

Sam's heart raced, "Alright," She said as she turned back to face him and sat back in the chair. Noah continued to hold her wrist while she was sitting in the chair. "You probably should put that thing back on," She smirked.

He slid his hand from her wrist and pulled the mask back onto his face, "Just like Jamal…"

Sam quietly moved the chair closer to his bedside, while he adjusted the mask. She folded her arms on his bedside and laid her head down to look up at Noah, who was smirking. He quietly closed his grayish-blue eyes and slid his hand on top of Sam's. Sam looked at his hand on top of hers and sighed in relief. She turned her hand to hold his as she closed her eyes to sleep. _I'm happy you asked me to stay…_

Jamal walked into the medical area carrying a cup of coffee into the lab, and stopped when he saw someone by Noah's bedside. He quietly walked closer and then stopped when he recognized it was Sam. It was the first he had seen Sam since Noah was in his care. People had told him she left that day and no one knew where she went.

Then without warning, it hit him and he realized everything. _It was her… Lucas saved him for **her** happiness…_


	53. Questioned Answered

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 52: Questioned Answered

The soft living room light spilled into the dark hallway and cast the only light in the entire mansion. There was no noise to be heard in the entire place as everyone was asleep peacefully. The news of the recoveries had spread through the school like wildfire and created a new sense of hope for everyone. People slept better, and the strange cloud over the school seem to lift.

Hecate was laying on the couch asleep in the living room with her large book sitting on the floor by the couch. She had stayed up all night reading on ancient Greek civilizations, which she did quite often. She had always been fascinated with Greek civilization to the point where it came a ritual to calm her down at night. Most nights she would spend reading in her bedroom, but tonight she had decided to read in the living room.

The light near the couch clicked off as a shadowy figure stood in the darkness staring down at Hecate in silence. The moonlight played off of her platinum blonde hair that lay spread across the side of the couch. She softly shivered in her sleep as she rolled over so that she was facing away from the inside of the couch and towards the fireplace. The shadowy figure took a deep breath in as though if they breathed, she would wake up.

Hecate quietly settled on the couch and went back to quietly breathing, which let the figure know that they hadn't given themselves away. She looked so peaceful in the moonlight and while she was dreaming; the usually angry and secluded mutant was calm. However, he had never seen any other side of her except her peaceful side. No one had ever shown him the unselfish kindness that she had sacrificed for him.

Arcane quietly grabbed the warm blanket from off the back of the couch and quietly spread it over Hecate's shivering body. The blanket fell around her body softly until Arcane got to her shoulders, where he carefully let the cover slip from his fingertips onto her shoulders as he turned to walk away.

Hecate's dark blue eyes shot open as she felt the blanket touch her shoulders, and her hand shot out from underneath the blanket. She grabbed the stranger's wrist and held on tightly as her dark blue eyes stared in the back of the man's head. Her eyes softened when Arcane turned around and she saw her reflection in his dark sunglasses. They stared at one another in an eerie silence as though trying to see if the other was truly friendly.

Hecate didn't move from where she was laying on the couch, nor did her hand move from around Arcan'e wrist. He quietly stepped back towards her and stood in front of her, while he stared down at her. His dark green eyes followed the reflection of the moon's light off of her hair as she sat up on the couch and wrapped the blanket around her.

"I thought you were dead," Hecate finally spoke as she slipped her hand from around his wrist to rest in her lap quietly.

"It wasn't my time," Arcane said calmly, "I still have one question left."

Hecate quietly stared at her illuminating reflection in his sunglasses; for the first time in her life she saw herself as beautiful. The silence between the two of them was oddly comforting to each of them as they stared at one another. Arcane let out a soft sigh before slowly bending down and softly kissing her lips. Hecate's dark blue eyes opened in shock as she stared into her beautifully distorted reflection in his sunglasses. He quietly pulled away and whispered, "What is your name?"

Hecate stared in his glasses for a minute before quietly removing them. His eyes were closed at first, but once the glasses were completely removed he slowly opened them to reveal his dark green eyes the pierced through the darkness of Hecate's eyes.

"My name is Hecate."

Linx quietly opened the door and slipped passed into the dark bedroom in silence. She walked over to the bed and carefully sat down, "Time to wake up now," she whispered as she stared down at Hiro, who was laying in bed asleep.

Hiro slowly blinked his eyes opened and looked up at Linx and gasped, "But-But-You're dead." He said in disbelief as he sat up.

Linx smirked, "You can't kill death."

His dark brown eyes stared at her for a minute and took in everything. Her hair was longer and she looked all around older; she had been through more. He looked down at her hand and noticed a black marking on the bone of her wrist peeking through her sleeves. He quietly took her hand and pushed up the sleeve to see a black circle around her bone. "What happened?"

"I needed to heal," she quietly said as she looked down at the marking. "I was infected."

Hiro quietly sat up in his bed, "You were infected?" He paused for a minute, "with the virus?"

"Yes," she softly smiled.

He stared down at the marking once again, "You're alright now though?"

"Yes," she sighed. "However, I'm hearing to take you back to the Dead Realm with me."

"What?" Hiro gasped.

"You have questions to answer, and questions yourself," she quietly said as she turned her hand so that her palm was facing up.

Hiro stared down at her hand for a minute and then slipped his into hers, "Alright."

A flash of white light blinded them and shortly was followed by a blood-chilling scream. Hiro opened his eyes to the grey and black tones of the Dead Realm that he had once been to months ago. His brown eyes slowly looked around, while Linx quietly walked ahead of him in her black robes with her large hood pulled over her head.

"You have a lot of questions that need answers…" She quietly said, which drew Hiro's attention back towards her.

"What do you mean?"

Linx stopped a few feet in front of Grimm and turned around to face Hiro, "They're not my questions. My questions can be answered back at the mansion," she paused, "The answers are with her."

Hiro's eyes looked passed Linx at the little girl who was dressed in her usually small puffy black dress with a white apron over it. _With her._ He thought quietly before looking back at Linx. "What question is she answering?"

"I have other matters I need to attend to," she walked passed Hiro, "you may ask her your questions." She quietly walked towards a small boy who was shuffling his feet in the dark burnt ash of the ground with his head down. Linx stopped short of the soul that was hopelessly walking through the darkness of the Dead Realm, and looked back at Hiro, who was staring at Grimm.

"Are you ready for your answers?" Grimm asked cheerfully.

Hiro quietly walked towards her and crouched down before the small girl. She had a soft smile on her face, which was the only other sign of life beside him and Linx. Grimm was a strange person to Hiro, which terrified him. No one understood the point of Grimm, and the idea of her being the younger version of Linx was something hard for everyone to wrap their minds around.

His dark brown eyes stared into the two different colored hazel eyes, that were similar to Linx's but were less worn. "What questions are you supposedly answering?"

Grimm gave a calmly smile as she spoke, "Your mother says 'hello' Hiro…"

Linx turned her attention away from Hiro and walked so that she was in front of the small boy. She stood there quietly as she stared down at the boy in silence, "You weren't supposed to die," she whispered as the little boy raised his head up to the sky an let out a loud scream that echoed throughout the land. His eyes weren't like everyone else's: his eyes were completely black.

"You've caused a lot of problems for people," she sighed as the boy lowered his head once again, "But you were innocent." She twirled her staff and hovered it above his shoulder; debating whether to transfer his soul to Limbo. "You were to change everything…" She softly tapped his shoulder.

As soon as her staff moved from his shoulder, his pasty gray-colored skin turned to a white cream color, but his eyes didn't change. He fell to his knees and stared up at Linx in disbelief. "You have chosen me?"

"Yes," she sighed as she stared down at him. "For now, but you are no longer the key."

The pale boy with completely black eyes nodded a couple of times as he stayed on his knees in the ash. "I know," he whispered.

Linx quietly bent down to his level and placed both her warm hands on either sides of his cheeks. "One day you will live again Ghost." She whispered as her two different colored hazel eyes stared into the abyss of his completely black eyes. She slowly leaned forward and kissed his now warm forward.

"Thank you," he whispered as his body transformed into what looked like dust and was whisked up into sky.

Linx stared up into the sky as she stayed crouched down on the ground, before slowly standing up as she continued to stare. She let out a small sigh and then turned her attention back towards Hiro and Grimm. She quietly walked towards them with a strange weight that had been lifted from her shoulders.

When she was a few feet away from Hiro and Grimm she heard them laughing, while Hiro was sitting in front of Grimm with his legs crossed. They both looked content and no longer had the strange tension between the two of them. She quietly walked and stood behind Hiro as she looked at Grimm, who had a huge smile across her small face.

"Is everything answered?"

Grimm nodded, "Yup."

"Good," Linx nodded before looking down at Hiro, "we must go than."

Hiro turned around and looked at Linx before slowly standing up to stand in front of her. "Do you have to go now?" Grimm whined.

Linx's two different colored hazel eyes stared into Hiro's dark brown eyes for a minute and then she spoke, "Yes," she smirked to Hiro and then leaned to the side to look at Grimm. "I'll see you soon my dear."

Grimm pouted for a minute and then sighed, "Fine."

Linx stood tall in front of Hiro and sighed, "Ready?"

"Now I am," he sighed in content before holding his hand out to Linx for her to take it.

"I assumed," She smirked as she wrapped her fingers around his large hands. A soft feeling of warmth filled both their bodies as their eyes locked on one another. They both slowly began to glow a burning red and starting from their feet they transformed into floating bubbles that moved towards the sky. Linx quietly closed her eyes as she embraced the feeling washing over her body, and a flash of white light filled their eyes.


	54. New Power and Waiting

**A New Age, A New Team  
**Chapter 53: New Power And Waiting

A couple weeks passed in the mansion and everyone resumed their regular lives. Nights passed quietly and morning rose in the same manner. The fall changed to winter and the bitterness washed over the warm mansion as the members huddled inside for warmth.

Jamal quietly rubbed the sleep from his dark brown eyes as he walked over to Aurora's bedside with his chart in one hand and a warm coffee in the other. The soft color had returned to her pale skin and she genuinely looked healthier and much better. He set his coffee on the table nearby and quietly flipped through the hologram medical records that he had collected over the past couple of months.

He ready over her body weight when she first came in and the gradual increase. He looked up at her sleeping and sighed, _She doesn't realize how beautiful she truly is. _He quietly sighed as he clicked the hologram chart back to the beginning and continued to quietly stare at her. Her soft red curled were laying perfectly across the pillow and her pale skin glistened underneath the florescent lights of the medical area. He looked away from her sleeping self and started to read the front pages to his medical records.

Aurora quietly murmured in her sleep and then slowly woke up to look at Jamal, "Jamal?"

He looked up from his medical records and softly smiled, "You're awake finally."

She smiled back and pulled herself up into a sitting position, which she wasn't able to do when she was first admitted. "Yeah," she said in her thick Irish accent.

"You ready to be weighed yet, or do you still need some time to wake up?" Jamal asked as he went back to looking over his charts.

"I'm ready," she nodded.

Jamal quietly stood by her bedside in case she needed his help to the scale, while Aurora quietly moved her feet off the side of the bed and let them dangle there for a minute. She took a deep breath in and stepped down onto the cold hospital floor so she was standing by Jamal. "Good," Jamal smiled as he quietly walked along side her towards the scale.

When they reached the scale, he stood on the side of the scale and waited for Aurora to step on. He watched as she stared at the scale in fear and then looked at Jamal with pleading eyes. "It's alright Aurora."

"I wish you didn't have to see it…" she whispered as she quietly placed one foot on the scale, followed by the other. She stood there quietly on the scale with her piercing green eyes closed in fear of the numbers.

Jamal looked down at the numbers, wrote them down on the hologram chart, "Alright Aurora you can step down." He said as he watched her carefully step off the scale, without opening her eyes, and then once she was safely off she opened them again. "You should lay back down while I process this information," he smiled as he ushered her back to her medical bed.

Once Aurora was tucked into her sheets, Jamal walked away from her towards his computer where he began to rapidly type across the keyboard. Different files popped up all over the screen until he found the one he was looking for that was marked 'Aurora' under his medical records file. He clicked it and slowly scrolled down as his dark brown eyes flashed back and forth across the screen until he found her body weight page. He entered the amount and charted it once again.

He stood up from his desk and took a couple steps back to look at the chart displayed on the massive computer screen. He folded his arms in front of his chest as he studied the rises and falls within the chart quietly. He walked back to his keyboard and scrolled some more to bring up her behavioral chart and stood back to study that along side the body weight chart. He nodded his head, went back to the keyboard, pressed one key which closed all the files, and picked up the hologram chart that had updated itself from the computer.

Jamal looked over the different holograms on the chart as he walked back to Aurora's bed. When he reached her bed, she was sitting up waiting to hear the news, "So?"

Jamal flipped the metal cover to the hologram closed and put it under his arm, "You look as though you're ready to leave," he smiled, "Congratulations."

Aurora felt a strange feeling wash over her as she felt as though she had truly accomplished something, "Really?"

"Really," he chuckled, "so what are you going to do your first day back?"

She looked down at the medical ground that she had gotten so used to constantly seeing, "I don't know," she whispered. She looked back at Jamal, "Would you care to join me for some lunch?" she softly smiled.

At first Jamal was caught off guard by the invitation. He never really left the medical area unless he was needed because that had become his role in the team; medical and weaponry genius. He had friends in the mansion and he saw them on a constant bases, but he was so used to eating alone over the years that he was used to it. It didn't bother him because it gave him time to scheme new ideas for weapons or medical procedures that now when others tried to sit with him, it annoyed him if anything. No one sat with him unless they had questions.

"I'd like that," Jamal softly smiled.

Tonya was sitting quietly in the bay window of the living room staring out across the front of the mansion, which was blanketed in white. Her headphones softly thumped against her eardrums as she stared into the stillness of the silence outside. Nothing moved outside and nothing could be heard. The snow was perfectly spread across the ground in silence.

She caught some movement out of the corner of her green eyes, but it was inside the living room. She turned her head and rolled her eyes when she Sean enter the room in jeans and a black turtleneck.

"Just the person I was looking for," he smiled and when he got no response, his smile slowly dissolved and he let out a tiny awkward cough. "It's chilly out," he said to create conversation with the only other person in the room, who was sitting in the window he was looking out of.

"Yup," Tonya said nonchalantly in her thick British accent, as she turned and looked out the window again.

"I had to put on a turtleneck in order to stay warm," he chuckled awkwardly.

"Why don't you go ask your little girlfriend to keep you warm?" She said out of annoyance.

At first Sean was taken back by her attitude, but then sighed as he walked closer towards the bay window to look at it. "It's not like that," he laughed in his thick Australian accent.

Tonya let out a small laugh and pulled her large headphones off of her ears, "What do you mean? You're always all over each other."

Sean let out a small laugh, "No were not."

"Whatever," she huffed before placing her headphones back on her ears.

Sean shook his head softly and then looked up at the sky through the window, "Looks like it's going to snow again," he whispered even though he knew Tonya couldn't hear him through the loud music thumping out of her headphones. He smiled softly as he stood up straight and started to walk out of the living room. _Another time…_

He reached the doorway to the living room and stopped, _I've been saying that for long enough._ He sighed and turned back around and walked towards Tonya once again. He carefully moved one of the headphones from her ear and spoke softly, "If you'd shut up for a second you'd know that Grace and I broke up because it was too weird being in a relationship with your best friend," he paused and swallowed the lump in his throat, "Besides, realized that I didn't want to be with anyone I haven't liked for years… So I could only be with you… And I'll continue to wait for you."

Her green eyes stared out into the white abyss as she listened quietly, and then she felt the warmth of his breath against her ear leave as he walked out of the living room. She slowly pulled the other large headphone from around her other ear and let the vibrating headphones rest around her neck. Her heart felt as though it fell through her body as his words echoed in her frozen body.

Sean turned the corner from the living room and stuck his cold hands into his jean pockets while he walked through the large entry way from the front door to the stairs. A weight that had been on his shoulders for years had been lifted and there was nothing more that he could do; he was fine with that. He stopped in the middle of the entryway and sighed as he looked around at the staircase that led to the dormitories and the large chandelier dangling above his head… Everything finally was settling into place.

He heard soft thuds rapidly coming closer towards him, which made him turn around to see Tonya running towards him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her cold lips against his with her piercing green eyes closed. He stood there in the middle of the entryway in complete surprise as he felt the warmth surge through both their lips before closing his brown eyes.

Before he could wrap his arms around her body, she quietly pulled away to look at him. "I got tired of waiting," she said softly. "I've been waiting for you, and I got tired of waiting…" She looked away from him for a minute and then looked back at him, "I'm sorry." She whispered before turning away and walking away from him. She stopped a couple feet away from him and turned around, "Why now, huh? Why?"

Sean stood there staring at her quietly, "I never meant to hurt you…"

Tonya looked down and then slowly walked back towards him, "It's a little late for that now, huh?" She said as her eyes pierced his in pain. She paused for a minute and then turned around to walk away.

Sean grabbed her wrist and turned her around to face him one last time, "Then I'll be the one waiting this time," he sighed before pressing his lips against her once more.

Her knees shook as she felt the passion in the kiss and as much as she wanted to cry, she stayed strong. When he pulled away from her she stared him in the eye and nodded, "Then wait…" she sighed before walking away to leave Sean alone in the entryway.

Jamal opened the door to the kitchen for Aurora to walk in. Some of the younger students ran passed them and out of the kitchen, which left them alone. Aurora quietly sat on the counter as she watched Jamal dig through the fridge for some food. There was nothing said between the two of them, until Aurora finally spoke softly, "Thank you."

Jamal glanced over his shoulder, "Don't worry about it," he waved it off as he pulled some chicken from the fridge to cook. _It's job to tend to people's medical needs…_

"Not for that," Aurora sighed as she heard his thoughts.

Jamal stopped and turned around to look at her for a minute, and then he remembered she was a telepath. "Oh," he chuckled, "then for what?"

"For thinking I'm beautiful," she said as her cheeks turned red in embarrassment, which made her look down at the speckled tile of the kitchen floor.

Jamal softly smiled at her, "You are. You just don't see it, but trust me, you are." He said as he placed a hand on her shoulder and smirked. "So what should we cook?" He joked as he turned away from her and went back to the fridge to find more things to cook.

_I can hear your thoughts Jamal, _Aurora thought quietly to herself, _but there never of anything but medical problems and weapons._ She slid off from the counter and stood next to him, "I don't care," she laughed in her Irish accent. _You never make time for anything else. You don't want to let anyone else in because you don't want to be hurt._

"Well you peel the rosemary and I'll start the chicken," Jamal nodded before turning back to the cutting block in which the chicken breast was sprawled across.

"Alright," Aurora nodded before quietly peeling the rosemary into a bowl in front of her with a smile on her face. _You want a friend… You're hurting but you hide it behind your brains._

_…You hide it behind your brains._ Jamal stopped cutting the chicken and looked over at Aurora, "What do I hide behind my brains?"

Aurora stopped and looked at him, "What?" _How'd he hear me? I'm controlling my thoughts to myself._

_…To myself. _"What?" Jamal asked again. "What about yourself?"

"You're hearing my thoughts?" Aurora gasped, "But how?"

"Aren't you sending them to me?"

"No," Aurora gasped, and then paused, "You're a telepath…"

"No I'm not," Jamal laughed, "I control sonic energy; that's it."

"It's the only way you could hear my thoughts," Aurora smirked. _It's alright. Don't fear it._

_It's alright. Don't fear it. _"Did you send that one?"

Aurora chuckled, "Yes. You try. I'll break the connection and you try." She blinked her green eyes as she felt the string between their minds break. "Alright."

"But - How?"

"Just think about me, and concentrate on my mind as you speak."

Jamal nodded and quietly thought, _Can you hear me? _He paused and looked at Aurora as he heard nothing from her, _I told you; I'm not a telepath… My brother got the extra power; not me._

_…Extra power; not me._ "You did it!" Aurora laughed in excitement, "But it's choppy. You need to work, but you're a telepath… And what about an extra power?" She smirked.

Jamal was at first shocked at his new power, but then was embarrassed by his thought, "Nothing," he turned back to cutting the chicken breast.

"No what," _You're hurting and I can help… It's the least I could do,_ she thought to herself.

_It's the least I could do…_ Jamal closed his eyes, "How do I block other's thoughts?" He turned and looked at her.

"It's hard, but I can teach you," Aurora became more excited at the thought of having someone to connect with. "It actually makes you feel a little crazy at first," she chuckled, "But you'll get it." He nodded his head and then went back to the chicken. "So what about an extra power and not you?" She teased.

"My brother, Rashad," he shrugged, "he has the same power as me and the ability to fly. I didn't think I got an extra power," he smiled and then looked back at her, "that's all."

_That's never all there is when it comes to family,_ She thought quietly before going back to peeling the rosemary. She glanced out of the corner of her green eyes as Jamal skillfully sliced through the chicken breast to cut off the fat, but he was so absentmindedly doing it. _I'm here for you…_ She quietly thought to him.

Jamal stopped cutting for a minute and looked at Aurora. A group of younger children ran through the kitchen, but both of them were lost in the gaze they held between each other. They quietly broke it and tended back to their meal they were cooking before Jamal interrupted the silence with his thought. _Thank you…_


End file.
